Paragon Reinterpretations
by RillyB.Dilly
Summary: The galaxy is a dark and cruel mistress as all its inhabitants can attest to. However, it's when things are at its bleakest that hope gathers its maximum strength. When the Asari inadvertently make first contact with a species known as humanity, few realized just how much hope that race would eventually give to the galaxy.
1. Codex: Alliance History Part One

The galaxy is a dark and cruel mistress as all its inhabitants can attest to. However, it's when things are at its bleakest that hope gathers its maximum strength. When the Asari inadvertently make first contact with a species known as humanity, few realized just how much hope that race would eventually give to the galaxy.

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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"Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful."

- **William Shakespeare.**

"Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion."

- **Dalai lama**

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

**- Martin Luther King, Jr.**

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Introduction

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Stop me if you heard this narrative before. A militant species grows as it thrives in the conquest of its brethren. It builds new technology and advancements with the first priority always being its possible applications in combat and brutality. After this species finds the remains of a long dead race, it immediately uses it to expand the territory of its violent fiefdom.

And then it makes First Contact.

Which, of course, is usually with the peace keeping Turians and typically results in an incredibly violent battle with the Turians almost always loosing despite the fact that the scouting fleet from Palaven have every possible advantage. You would think the spirits themselves favored humanity, as that is the mysterious species in question for the one percent of you who had not figured it out after the first sentence.

After this, whether peace is made or not, humanity is seen by the galaxy as a looming threat that must be watched at all times. The Turians are of course our biggest rivals and rightfully so. The Batarians hate us (duh) but are usually dealt with immediately because humanity, as we all know, has no sense of restraint or discernment – we just shoot whoever we do not like and damn the consequences. Its not like this taints our reputation or anything to the vast multitude of non-humans that outnumber us hundreds to one.

Okay, sarcasm aside, I am sick and tired of renegade humanity. Look, I admit that the first couple of AU human fics that I read were fun. Seeing humanity kick butt against the xeno-scum will always strike a chord in me that I think everyone else also experiences. We enjoy imagining ourselves as the top race, ruling over aliens with a iron fist while they quake at our sight. Renegade humanity fics are not even that hard to write from a story point of view. As humans, we instinctively want to hurt those that try to harm us. So making every Turian a massive prick and labeling Batarians as an entire race of barbaric bullies makes humanity's renegade brand of diplomacy seem to be perfectly reasonable.

Seriously, I do enjoy them – to a certain point. Can I have something different please? Because reading humanity continually portrayed as a race of vindictive, self-righteous jerks gets old after awhile.

Humanity is for all intents and purposes neutral in the canon universe and that is a good thing. It allowed more freedom in what Shepard did in his/her adventures and made the ramifications of his/her decisions more easily felt. But you know how in Mass Effect you never really accomplish anything worthwhile if you only choose neutral options? Canon humanity has the same problem. Realistically, if the writers did not intervene using plot magic, humanity would not be anywhere near as strong as it is in the canon universe.

If mankind wants to become a legitimately powerful race by the events of ME1, it has to make either really renegade or really paragon choices early on in its history and humanity does neither in canon. And we all know all the different facets of renegade origin stories the Systems Alliance have across the internet.

When I play Mass Effect, I always play pure paragon. Upper/blue text only is how I roll. Thus, I enjoy reading stories with paragon Shepard. I also really like AU fics. See the problem? With very few exceptions, almost all AU ME fanfics have renegade or leaning-towards-renegade humanity running the show and I had enough.

So, in a fit of irritation-induced insanity, I decided to take on an impossible task. I am writing a story about a species.

A species that laid down their weapons after a third world war when they realized no one truly won.

A species that under their own collective volition saved their battered homeworld from certain annihilation.

A species that healed a broken planet and in the process were reborn into a new golden age of peace.

A species that allowed their own to travel to the stars without restrictions and were thus rewarded by the grateful pilgrims who expected rejection.

A species that created synthetics and then embraced them as their own beloved children when it gained true intelligence.

A species that met an alien race which badly needed assistance and rescued them without taking advantage of their weakness and in return gained a valuable ally.

A species that harnessed incredible power and then used it to nurture and heal as opposed to destroy or dominate.

A species that when later introduced to the galaxy at large brought order and justice instead of chaos and discord.

A species whose creativity and resourcefulness are fully used to help, not destroy the aliens around them.

A species that considers themselves not superior but equal with the large family of galactic life.

This is a story about a species fanning the fires of hope and goodwill against the overwhelming dark tide of despondence of a gloomy galaxy.

At its heart, this is a Paragon's story about how a race rose up to challenge an entire galaxy's worth of prejudice and defy all assumptions.

This species is called paragon humanity and this is their story.

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Codex: Alliance History Overview Part One

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The Age of Lamentations

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"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."

**- Ernest Hemingway **

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Since humans first walked across the continents of Earth they have stared up to the sky wondering what wonders waited above them. Perhaps as an unconscious desire to grow spiritually and intellectually, we will never really know. It was never a question of if but when mankind would finally reach the heavens and unlock its uncountable secrets. Towers became taller and taller, more and more mountain peaks were uncovered, men created countless flying contraptions, all of which did not succeed. But man persevered, learning from their mistakes until finally motorized gliders were made, then airplanes, then rockets.

Humanity, instead of submitting to hardship, thrives in it. Its only in the existence of competition that innovation truly bears fruit. The greatest achievement would only be realized when the USA and the Soviet Union entered such a race.

Man finally realized its dream when the first cosmonaut saw the starry void without atmosphere obscuring the gorgeous view.

This accomplishment brought back one of the biggest questions humanity has ever asked.

Are we alone?

Are there others like us?

Humanity did not rest and continued innovating. Years later, men finally stood on the white dirt of Earth's eternal companion, the moon. With the landing came a scientific revolution that ushered in the information age and beyond.

Until mankind was reminded of who its worst enemy truly was: Itself.

With all these scientific discoveries came rising tensions as numerous factions all competed with one another for world supremacy. With unrestrained greed humanity exploited the planet to fuel its open war of resource denial against there neighbors. More and more skirmishes were fought among the various borders. To fuel such large-scale militarization, Earth's resources were consumed with ravenous hunger.

After decades of such abuse, Earth became a filthy, decayed world filled with deterioration and stark poverty. Covered in a constant light scattering haze of greenhouse gasses, most of the planets urban populace have grown up never seeing the twinkling stars or illuminating moon talked about in books and vids. The sky then had two modes - sickly yellow in day and suffocating blackness in night.

Acid rain then being the norm, urban sprawls became inter-spaced with giant Arcology domes where the wealthy lived in relative comfort compared to the desolate masses. Private military and mercenary corporations soon put most public police departments out of work as the demand for security became above what most civil law enforcement could handle.

Due to pollution, relentless famine, poverty, and urban violence, the population of Earth had topped out at around ten billion people. Overpopulation, small-scale nuclear warfare, environmental terrorism, significant deforestation, world hunger, ozone depletion, and water shortages were the main factors in the slow downfall of man. With billions of people having no access to oxygen-replenishing cleaners, lung cancer becomes the number one source of death in the age's civilization. By 2036 ADE, Earth had undergone significant flora loss coupled with the coming extinction of almost half of all wildlife on the ground and in the oceans. This unrestrained asset waste came with the looming fate of a seemingly inevitable energy and materials crisis. By 2041 ADE, almost all fossil fuels and uranium deposits on Earth were depleted.

With the price of crude oil at nine hundred USD a barrel, food in pitifully small supply, and an atmosphere becoming more poisonous every year, the nations of Earth were forced to consolidate political, economic, and military power to form superstates to centralize resource management and to insure more effective distribution.

Hostilities rose between the four super powers at the time: The Chinese People's Federation, The Russian State, The United American Forces and The European Union; the last two being in the forefront of technological innovation and weapon superiority due to the military alliance they both shared. While surrounded by hostiles, the two continent powers maintained their own territory over western Europe and the Americas. One key component to their domination was the mandatory use of neural and cyber augmentations that added sensory and physical advantages to their soldiers which made their battalions function both smarter and stronger. Combined with State-of-the-art missle and armor technology and their borders were always guarded from even the most determined foe as evident by the shockingly light casualties American forces suffered during the Russian-Amazon Forest Raids in the Brazilian Directorate in 2040 ADE.

Years of conflicts forged a vast array of new weapons and vehicles from the Shanghai Dragon Hovering Gunship to the Russian nuclear powered HERC mechs to the EU WRAITH stealth suits and American Rail-gun tanks. In case of battle, every superstate had enough firepower in their arsenals to destroy ten Earths each.

The only thing preventing total war from erupting was the last decade placements of the UAF-EU SLAM (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield) orbiting satellite network, a comprehensive, interlocking anti-ballistic missile system. While preached as a way to instill peace, its real function was the elimination of possible nuclear strikes against American-European nations or anywhere else. The United Nations approved of this since it considered the threat of a more traditional mass invasion too costly for any nation to instigate in the resource scarce period. In the organizations view, human extinction from war was now impossible.

The UN failed to realize what starvation could drive a nation to do.

In growing desperation, the Chinese People's Federation gargantuan infantry force and members of other starving nations including South Africa, Egypt, and Eastern Europe invaded the Middle East to attain the last remnants of oil in the region. Saudi Arabian troopers fought back and the conflict ended in a devastating nuclear attack that left twelve million civilians and soldiers dead and crippling the already small supply of oil from the Middle East, plunging the world faster into a world wide energy crisis. Half the foreign invading army would later die from radiation induced cancer and genetic abnormalities.

The Nations of Earth cried out in anger against the Chinese and their allies for their hopeless invasion and demanded reparations. When the UN instilled economic sanctions against the Chinese Federation, the Asian superstate, realizing how much it would suffer in its already extreme crises, left the Security Council and initiated their own survival protocol developed by its central communist government leaders for such an occasion: Operation Bleak Sky.

Chinese sleeper agents secretly working in UAF-EU SLAM sites all over the world simultaneously released a devastating viral attack that allow Federation hackers free reign of the missile network. With the satellites out of commission, the Chinese People's Federation fired a cataclysmic volley of nuclear strikes at various targets in Russia and the EU with the plan of taking over Russian oil fields. While most of the missiles are intercepted by EU fast action gun ships across the worlds oceans and the network quickly retaken by the UAF cyber warfare divisions, a sundry of areas targeted are wiped out leading to the sudden deaths of hundreds of millions.

Three days later, every nation on the planet was engaged in battle where a Pyrrhic victory was the best possible outcome.

Like roaches feasting on a dead rat, mankind fought to the death over what little remained. The thousands of prophecies regarding what World War Three would be like was finally about to be tested to the grief of all.

While entire libraries could be written on the conflict, two notes are noteworthy to be mentioned in the codex due to there future implications in Alliance military doctrine. Chinese Mesosphere drone bombers released a calamitous raid of EMP bombs over North America which destroyed electricity coverage for two-thirds of the continent. The intention was to disable the advance fleet-yards of the UAF navy docked in California but was ultimately ineffective. However, this results in the increased use of drone technology which would later have large repercussions in human history.

In retaliation, The Three Gorges Dam in China was destroyed by a EU shock-wave cluster bomb strike which results in the flooding of Eastern China and the creation of small tsunamis across the Pacific rim. This was used as a diversion. When the Federation started relief efforts, a massive invasion force of UAF, EU and State armies marched into Central Asia to take the conflict to the superstates home turf.

Due to the astronomical manpower needed to later reconstruct the damn, VI and later AI assistance is used. This leads to the public view of synthetic intelligences as valuable assistants and later allies as opposed to the common harbingers of machine doom viewpoint.

The war lasts exactly one year and ends with no perceived victors. The Federation army fought back desperately as the Asian continent was slowly taken over by UN liberation forces. Knowing that defeat was their only option, the federation sabotaged Asia with dirty bombs and the self inflicted destruction of all infrastructure to bog down the invading armies. The last official battle was the joint invasion army by EU, UAF, and Russian forces against the last stand Chinese military on the entrenched outskirts of Beijing, the capital of the Federation itself. Actual combat ended four days before the war ended when one million Chinese soldiers lowered their weapons in surrender and shame. The war ends in 2046 ADE when all two thousand members of the ruling communist party commit suicide after detonating a nuclear bomb which levels the Forbidden City.

An estimated 2.3 billion lives are lost in the conflict. East Africa, all of eastern and lower China, and southern Russia became radioactive, lifeless wastelands unfit for human habitation. Billions of metric tons of radioactive soot becomes incorporated into the congested atmosphere and starts a nuclear winter that last half a decade. Traditional agriculture, no matter how automatized, was next to impossible in such conditions.

In complete disgust with the entire situation, one in every three soldiers involved in the war left their respective armies in mass desertions.

A universal ceasefire is called to end the despair and give time for dark reflections.

The question on how human civilization would end was now known: With a quiet whimper.

Every church, temple, and sacred place of religion on the planet becomes crowded as mankind wept in the sight of its inevitable conclusion.

But not all closed their eyes to the darkness.

Some individuals stood to stare up in the seemingly eternal gray sky and saw the distorted rays of the sun even through the radioactive smog.

Some individuals dreamed of feeling the sun hitting their faces in all its glorious, blinding white light as it did a half a century ago.

Some individuals still held hope in the salvation of man.

Some individuals were future leaders, warriors, speakers, and inventors.

These individuals are known as paragons.

And in the grim precipice of extinction, their hope is what changed everything.

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First Age of Ascension

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Codex: Alliance Organizations – The League of Unity

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"Today, at the edge of our continued existence, at the end of our time, we have chosen to believe in each-other! We shall create our own Raison d'etre! Today, we are canceling the apocalypse! "

**- Mark Alenko, first Chief Director for the LU during his appointment speech**

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."

**- Kenji Miyazawa **

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It has been said that tragedy is the best judge of character. In times of great trouble, people remove masks and reveal their true nature. With that in mind, one optimistic note in the aftermath of the war was the sheer number of heroes that rose to help their fellow man. Crime rates shrunk to record lows all over the world as relief work was done by people in all walks of life whether rich or poor, man or woman, augmented or unaugmented. Traditional social blocks eroded as everyone now finally shared one goal which united all: Man's continued existence.

The tolerance for selfishness and greed was also at an all time low. The prevailing shift in world politics towards altruism and charity made renegade actions ill advised. A preeminent anti-military bias settled on the majority of mankind. The pre-war days of ruthless militarization would no longer be tolerated.

The United Nations, gaining a boost in popularity for their part in stopping the war from escalating further then it did, announced a series of emergency meetings on how to adopt in such a different setting. After months of deliberations, the UAF, EU, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Russian State, the occupied United Asian Protectorate (UAP), Japan, and Australia signed the Nations Alliance Treaty (NAT). The NAT document compelled its signatory nations to shut down all active military enlistment programs and to induce acute cuts on defense spending. On top of that, a new global currency is mandated in the transnational electronic currency form of the Alliance Credit (AC). To sate concerns of possible liquid asset collapse, other forms of currency are allowed and used in world business.

In a case of extremely fortuitous timing, a secret UN ran project to make a viable commercial nuclear fusion reactor finally beared fruit. With the positive results of the Gravitational Inertial Thermonuclear Laser Reactor (GITLR) prototype, the United Nations postulates that any state that abides by the NAT would receive the schematics for the reactor.

Deuterium and tritium become the most sought over substance on the planet. While energy coverage will still remain a public concern, the obsessive need for fossil fuels would be a thing of the past.

With NAT, at least temporally, war would be outlawed and the nations of Earth completely focused on saving the planet.

The foundations of the Systems Alliance as we know today was laid in the cement of rampant restoration efforts. With mankind as a whole being hopeful but unfocused, the battered nations of Earth knew that drastic measures would have to be implemented to push back the clock to species extinguishment. While their ambitions were immense, their intentions were greatly aided by the actions of three political entities most credited for the rescue of Earth and of the human race: The League of Unity (LU), The Paladin Directive (PD), and The United Eden Initiative (UEI).

The Paladin Directive will be discussed later in another part of this historic overview due to their connection with the AI singularity.

Space outside the realms of the Citadel races gives home to more than just brigands and pirates, it is also the home of those at the other end of the spectrum - those that dedicate their lives to aiding the needy. The League of Unity is one of these organizations, perhaps the one best known in galactic space; certainty the most well known as far as humanity is concerned. While sometimes criticized for its insufferable penchant to preach at its visitors regardless of their species or religious affiliation, the League have large followings in all the galactic races and the organization is mostly run on donations from those followers, as well as from some limited commercial enterprises and tariffs levied on those visiting their stations across Citadel space and the Terminus Systems.

Fully realizing the future scope of the conflict weeks after the bombings in Russia, hundreds of human rights groups, environmental activists, and medical corporations met in London to covertly form a treatise with the International Red Cross, Green peace, and Mercy Corps preceding over the unification hearings. After acceptance from the UN, the aid trust entered the war scene as the League of Unity (LU) wearing the white and green flag on their regalia.

Made mostly of volunteers, former warriors searching for penance, and medical personnel from the Leagues base cities of Washington DC, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Boston, Seattle, Huston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, London, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Canberra, Beijing, and the East-West Caribbean megalopolis; the worldwide super organization would play a indispensable part in the restoration efforts on the planet and in fulfilling their chief objectives of saving lives, alleviating suffering, and maintaining compassion in a world with very little to spare.

Formed soon after the genesis of WWIII, the League was prevalent in all stages of the war from supporting war-torn regions which lacked basic utilities to dragging wounded soldiers from the chaotic front lines. The most well known branch of the League was and still is the Emergency Relief division. Gaining a reputation for always arriving in the scene of disaster first, the relief response teams airlifted in crates of anti-septic medicines, emergency rations, and hydrogen fuel cell generators for disaster aid. The Leagues' engineering department would usually hover in later to construct energy efficient shelters, hand out oxygen re-breathers, and build water purification systems to extend life expectancy in the region in question.

However, its efforts were hampered by constant torrential weather, unorganized violence, and residual radiation from chemical and nuclear attacks. Knowing this would probably be the case, the medical corporate side of the League made deals with biotechnology firms and cybernetic companies to help elevate the new aid relief agency for a darker age. The UN General Corporate Assembly (UNGCA) volunteered their services to help evolve the League to better perform its duties.

The world economy has always placed a large role in technological development and scientific discoveries. For almost a century, the emphases of possible future war had led to the creation of military industrial complexes having the majority of available engineers under its belt. In the restoration period however, the emphases flipped 180 degrees with civilian industry now the most demanded sector for science to attend to. With inventing naturally a slow process, all possible catalysts possible were used to entice faster turnout rate since time was of the essence.

In no other time in human history had so much resources and manpower been put into such a task with so much public support.

Mankind was ready for a civilization change.

The first major medical breakthrough in the period was the creation of a treatment which allowed unrestrained augment implantation.

Before the eruption of WWIII, all the superstates looked for any advantage that could be used to gain the upper hand. When the European Union and the United American Forces formed a military alliance, they initiated a daring plan – the Augmentation of their soldiers. While the first implants had many health complications, the surgeries became safer with time. However, to stop painful side effects, a cocktail of medications had to be taken daily to prevent loss of implant function. With the usefulness of the augments however, the military saw it as a acceptable payment.

As resource stores on earth shrunk, augments became more rare due to the high maintenance cost associated with their upkeep.

That changed with the birth of anti-glial tissue gene therapy injections that made constant immuno-suppressant medication a thing of the past and resulted in the phasing out of the then dominant spinal cluster biochip. No longer held back by bodily rejection, augmentation use rebounded and became increasingly varied and common amongst military ranks and even wealthy civilians. From strength enhancing microfibrial muscles to radar transparency to the mandatory unit neural info-links, the American-European infantry became the most dominant on Earth while active skin coloration, speed enhancers, and extendable fingers became trendy among rich young people.

The second major breakthrough in science two years into the restoration of Earth was Russia's Inner Zone Studies demonstration of the world's first nanites capable of self-replication. Actually based on Russian military research, the nanites were re-purposed for commercial use by the firm. While its applications in metallurgy, material science, aerospace design, memory storage, and medicinal products were vast, use of the nanites are uncompromisingly restricted by UN officials.

The League itself established the League Science Sanctuary division (LSS) and built small scientific work sites all over the world to research practical low-technology like better water filters using recycled tire rubber or longer lasting plastic sheets for relief tents. It also acted as a typical refuge haven as all other League buildings, but this activity was and is secondary to its scientific pursuits.

In the spirit of beneficial competition, Hygieia Industries heavily funds the formation of a Medical hazard suit to allow greater access to toxic zones and to gain more shares for the young corporation. Called the Omniweave Logistical suit, it included several experimental features including the first commercial use of nanites in the form of a Nano-assisted Caduceus Reactor. Specifically made to hold large amounts of power for long periods of time, the reactor allowed extended use in the field with plenty of power left over to power medical instruments like electrolyte boosters and Cellular restabilizer patches.

Not to be outdone, the hovercraft producer Velocitron corporation introduced new hovercraft medi-vac dropships for public and private use. The medi-vac concept was first introduced as an improvised solution by the UN's 19th Peacekeeper Division during peacemaking operations in postwar Nigeria. The unit was operating in acid storms and modified a Quantra-foil APOD-33 dropship for remote control which increased the combat life of medics in the division. While meant for League use, the dropship's resilience and easily reparable design gained it a loyal following in the future Alliance Surgeons Corps.

Nei Yin Medical's SHIELD Ambulance Tank, commonly seen in unstable third world countries and other war areas, are also first used around this time. Unmanned, the tanks main focus is to pick up injured soldiers in combat situations and perform remote surgery on them while on route to the nearest friendly hospital. Technologies in the tank include a surgical precision system that controlled a laser array for instant cutting and cauterizing and atomic force microscopes that enable surgeries to be handled at the nanometer scale. While expensive to produce, the SHIELD tanks saved thousands of marine lives both then and now in the Alliance Navy.

As the League gained more predominance in the health industry on Earth, more and more medical items were produced to be sold at League owned retail venders. New Dawn Pharmaceuticals, one of the Leagues biggest supporter and business partners, were the second corporations to be allowed access to Inner Zones nanites for its production line. Amongst its famous merchandise were SMARTSKIN (an intelligent bio-material that when placed on damaged tissue stimulated stem cells to regenerate that specific tissue), first generation skin implanted bio-sensors for early health warnings, and the very first smart contact lenses with real-time health status reports.

By 2050 ADE, five years after its conception, the League of Unity was transformed from a ragtag mob of well intentioned misfits to a professional army of security and Medical doctors, health scientists and first response medic commandos. Three hundred thousand strong, the League had bases in almost every state in the world. Over a century later, it would own near two hundred stations all across the galaxy, have its own office complex on the Citadel, and be one of several human organizations that helped humanity become the biggest health supplier in Citadel space.

It was mostly due to League manipulation that the saying "Piss off humans and you can kiss your prescriptions good-bye" became common on extranet forums.

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Age of Restoration

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Codex: Alliance Organizations – United Eden Initiative

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"As you can clearly see from these diagrams, these six meter long 'Teary Puffball' trees are adapt at absorbing both sodium and chlorine from soil as part of their metabolism. Designed by the biotechnology firm Albert-mods Inc. for cleanup work in heavy salt content soil, the trees have become the dominant plant life in areas with highly salty runoff such as Pittsburgh and Detroit..."

-** Dr. Eva Valdez, special guest during a seminar in Harvard University, circa 2050 ADE.**

"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew."

**- Marshall McLuhan, 1964 **

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While the League healed the spirit of humanity, the body of Earth itself had its own team of surgeons working on it. Ever since mankind landed on the moon, the health of the biosphere had deteriorated until reaching its figurative ER state in the postwar environment. Aware that laymen methods would not be enough in the face of such large scale damage, the UN General Corporate Assembly formed a sub-committee of environmentally conscious corporate backers to jump start the healing of the planet's ecosystems. Instant recovery was impossible but in the meantime, the sub-committee would act as a "Defibrillator to Gaia" as the chairman for the League Justin White worded it.

The sub-committee, made up of six megacorporations which managed a hundred smaller constituent corporations involved in genetic research, agriculture, farming robotics, vertical farming, water maintenance, GM food production, sustainable energy, biomass storage, carbon sequestration, greenhouse systems, and meta-material manufacture named themselves the United Eden Initiative (UEI) in 2047 ADE.

While they had big plans, smaller, easier steps were taken at first to introduce the Initiative to the public and solve more pressing problems as quickly as possible. Number one priority being food production.

Due to the abuse of the natural environment and the disturbing frequency of plant destroying acid rains, the United Eden Initiative began to grow vast sea farms of edible protein and nutrient-rich algae, which was flavored with spices and other ingredients, in order to feed the billions of people of Earth both cheaply and effectively. While acid resistant algae was already consumed regularly in nations like Japan, algae would become the staple food for most humans on Earth. To add variety, the basic algae ingredients was slowly modified into new forms. In Alliance museums, the packaging of such foodstuffs can be seen such as Arame soda pop, Carrgreen Moss soup packets, and Nori-crunch dessert bars. The produce from these seaweed farms, while not particularity appetizing, did prevent famine and was thus labeled a success by the initiative.

The Chairman, chief manager, and spiritual father of the UEI, Dr. Seamus McCormick, and his assistants would win the Nobel peace prize for their contributions to humanity alongside Justin White and his medical staff of the League.

While Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) methods were effective, their greenhouse gas mitigation would take too long for noticeable effects. The UEI approved the use of fast growing tree plantations for bio electricity but were already planning something much bigger in mind.

To combat acid rain, carbon dioxide in the air, and wide spread pollution, the UEI used the goodwill and budget increases from their success at stopping world hunger by laying down plans for the construction of a massive super project. Recruiting thousands of augmented workers and an entire army of construction drones, the initiative over a five year span built a reverse-climate change mega-installation that freely floated on the Indian Ocean.

After a private media showing by UEI spokeswoman Tilda Jorgensen "the benefactress", Atlantis-Alpha-01 went online in 2054 ADE with the goal of "re-terraforming" the planet.

The purpose of Atlantis-Alpha-01 was twofold but connected: detoxifying both air and sea of pollutants. In order to do so, the facility promoted the growth of phytoplankton by dispersing iron powder into the ocean. Acting as a fertilizer, massive algae blooms formed around the super-structure. When the iron ran out, the algae died and took the carbon they sucked out of the atmosphere with them to the ocean floor where it becomes normal biomass sediment. This method both solved the problem of global warming and helped lessen the frequency of acid rainstorms. The second purpose of the installation was to absorb pollutants from the ocean itself and convert it to solid super-dense waste cubes for recycling.

In the first year alone, Atlantis-Alpha-01 'scrubbed' thirty billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere along with three billion tons of sulfur dioxide via genetically modified short lived purple-green bacteria. Within the underwater portions of the installation laid a recycling and reclamation center where the installation's superconducting cryodipole magnets collected and sorted ninety six million tons of waste products from the ocean itself.

In the following decade, fourteen more Atlantis installations were built for all five oceans in the planet; all more efficient then the first after being paired up with AI island overseers.

Taking a page from mother nature, humanity knew that plant life would be vital for the planet's recuperation. The problem was that normal Terran flora would not cut it for the heavy duty work needed. To hasten the transformation further, a large assortment of genetically altered "super-flora" were designed to help replenish lost forests and add much needed beauty to the deserts that covered once bountiful grasslands and savannah.

Large, radiation absorbent fungi known as "Octoshrooms" were designed to use isotopes of xenon and uranium oxides in its normal metabolism. Used as a boimediation tool, thousands of acres of the glowing radiation neutralizing purple mushrooms were grown in fallout locations to "eat" ambient radiation.

More success stories include the "Binary Sunshine", a small herbaceous plant with bright aqua blue bioluminescent leaves. Living near a "Binary Sunshine" farm can actually disrupt sleeping patterns due to the plants being more luminous then the moon. With such power, the plant was and still are used as natural landscape lighting for Terran cities. Another, more practical artificial plant is the "Ugly Anemone." While looking like an orange cactus covered in warts, the plant was extensively farmed for its unique ability to thrive on soil containing fatal doses of heavy metals like mercury. Used as a natural detoxifier, acres of Ugly Anemones would rejuvenate square miles of soil, be removed, and allow access for normal agriculture in the same plots.

Because of the lack of available farmland in times where radiation dead zones were literally everywhere and where super-flora seeds and spores were still limited, a vast push was initiated to combine agriculture and urban planning into one combined domain: the creation of 'Green Cities.' To prove the validity of the idea, the Eden Initiative took over the planned conception of a new capital for Thailand to replace the destroyed city of Bangkok due to recurring flooding.

Bangkok-02 would be the Eden Initiative's grand experiment and, in some peoples opinion, one of the most beautiful cities ever built on Earth.

Responses to flooding tend to fit one of two philosophies. One is that physical flood defenses can prevent most flooding (in the areas protected, that is) and mitigate the effects of the worst unpreventable events. The other is that catastrophic flooding should be accepted as inevitable, and that humanity should adapt, one way or another, to live with rather than combat flooding. The former has been done before with mixed results. For the test, the Initiative incorporated the latter, more radical, philosophy into their blueprints.

The Initiative's scheme centered on the creation of a "water detention network" that would retain water during the rainy season for use in agriculture for the rest of the year. These double-cropped" fields then would leave land available for water retention in designated reservoirs. "Floating agriculture" would ensure that these fields and reservoirs were productive all year round. The design blurred the distinction between the industrial and the agricultural, the urban and the rural, envisaging the city as a patchwork of rice paddies, freshwater fish farms, algae fields, synthetic hives, water storage infrastructure and settlements. Agricultural waste would be put to use as an energy source for the city through biomass power plants. Conversely, waste from urbanized areas would be put to use as fertilizer. The upshot would be an increase in agricultural productivity that would, with the construction of a high-speed rail link, see Bangkok-02 emerge as a center for tourism and commerce for the southern state of the United Asian Protectorate.

While at first just an experiment, the city's concept art published on public forums transformed it into a symbol for the resurgence of man in a formally broken world.

Using Atlantis-Alpha-01 as a base of operations, the Construction of the city commenced on 2053 ADE. With countless architectural companies eager to assist in this modern city for a new era, Bangkok-02's main infrastructure is completed in only three years.

When finally completed in 2058 ADE, Bangkok-02 stood as the most advanced city in the planet. Holding a population of five million citizens, the city's large reservoirs, swarming with cultivation drones and sensor probes, easily fed the entire population who exported the rest of its food to India and China. The public elevated mass transit system, amphibious water taxi transport, vertical farming skyscrapers, and other symbiotic technologies like bio-powered jetliners and genetically modified aquatic bioluminescent flora made the city one of the most environmentally friendly human habitats in existence for the time.

When the annual typhoon flooding occurred, the water surged through the entire city unimpeded and at the same time barely affected day-to-day living for its citizens.

When the season ended, the first recorded full sunrise in fifty plus years was seen in all its breathtaking beauty by billions of exited viewers.

Those who stared up in the dead sky all those years ago, then teenagers, were now middle aged men and woman.

They smiled as tears streamed down their eyes.

It seems the visions of those few paragons were not just pipe dreams after all.

The grand success of Bangkok-02 led a revolution in urban planning that made ripples in the entire world. With the victory in Thailand, the area became a model for western coastal cities like New Orleans, which took the concept further by incorporating Buoyant free-floating housing to most of its residential zones. The levees were subsequently demolished due to lack of need. As other dams and levees were demolished long dead marshland ecosystems sprung back to life like the Mississippi river brackish water estuary. Independent survey groups reported that biodiversity was in the rise for the first time in forty six years.

Harbors, ports, and docks soon became neighbors with "Venice-type" green cities that sprung up like the plants they often supported using drone assisted perpetual harvest systems.

New York City, the most densely populated urban center of the UAF, became the most eco-friendly city in the Americas when it added waterproof meta-material canopies to the lower stories of all its skyscrapers in response to rising sea levels. In addition to keeping water out, these canopies provided additional structural support against lateral forces, provided green agricultural space, and provided living and working areas in their own right. Further additions of Jungle domes and artificial islands including Atlantis-Omega-07 turned NY into a thriving temperate rainforest metropolis. As Manhattan flooded, the effected districts kept functioning normally.

The two architects involved, Tingwei Zhang and Xie Xu, would later supervise the construction of the first private space station ever built for the MSSS corporation.

The UEI also constructed a vast vacuum pipe mass transit system that connected the entire globe, the Maglev International Network, for both supersonic public transportation and commercial shipping. While a very laborious and expensive undertaking, the project created two benefits in both public relations and function: its created a new way to travel all over the world and it helped unite the scattered population left in the aftermath of the war.

In 2062 ADE, the world is a barely recognizable place compared to its more pitiful state in 2020. While radiation fields was still unacceptably common in many parts of the planet and the air still somewhat congested with pollutants, mankind's position in the ecosystem was supreme and unquestioned. With food now plentiful and death rates vastly smaller compared to the prewar days, humanity rejoiced in its salvation.

Earth would enter true pre-industrial revolution levels of environmental purity only after synthetics entered the cleaning spree. But that part comes later.

Now more secure in its position, the Nations Alliance united all the major national space programs into one body. Known as the International Space Administration (ISA), the combined thinking power of all the worlds greatest astrophysicist, astronomers, and space technology experts the world had to offer, now no longer help back by language barriers with the common use of translation implants, could finally prepare humanity for their next big step to accession.

Its a warm summer morning in New York City when delegates from all the nations in the globe leave their air shuttles amidst the squawking of seagulls and pelicans from the many marine bio domes scattered in the forested beachfront near the United Nations Headquarters to discuss the details of establishing a joint colony on the moon.

A century later, the Citadel Council would form a joint committee with the Eden Initiative due to humanity's unquestioned mastery of genetic modification and ecosystem reworking. While the good intentions of the partnership are genuine, there are also more pragmatic reasons behind the handshaking.

Humanity, being an affiliate Citadel race, accepts the proposition to improve its strained relations with the Council races.

The Council races come up with the idea to prevent a very dangerous monopoly and are relieved when mankind accepts the deal.

The committee is made because the Alliance owned Eden Initiative is the only organization in galactic space that can create brand new garden worlds from even the most inhospitable planets imaginable.

Besides their homeworld, humans have already created two replacement Earths in other systems in case of emergency.

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**Author Notes:**

**(Note: Due to growing personal dissatisfaction and legitimate criticisms, as of 12/20/12 I have started a large scale rewrite of this story with this chapter being the first reworked. What you are reading now is what I think to be a superior version to what was previously uploaded. I am letting you know this so that reading older comments or the un-worked chapters do not confuse you.)**

I have some problems with Bioware and its unrealistic grasp of time and technology gaps in the Mass Effect universe. I understand that the Prothean ruins jump-started mankind but I don't think that would be nearly enough for humanity to be as significant a race as it is in the events of Mass Effect One. I am willing to believe in a highly advanced mankind but only if it received some serious help. A cooperative humanity with powerful AI assistance is a scenario that does not break my suspension.

For those of you wondering what stories inspired me, they include the excellent **Renegade** by _Peptuck_, the numerous **Halo** crossovers, and my favorite: **Renegade Reinterpretations** by _College Fool_ which I highly recommend. **Mass Effect: A new past** by _Bombsquad_ is a mixed bag for me. While I did enjoy it, I felt it was borderline childish in its vindictive ranting against the council and this is something I want to avoid.

This is a story where I will emphasize humanities capacity for cooperation and friendship. If you like stories where humanity has super powered naval ships that blows up entire planets while the other races gape in terror you will be disappointed because that will not happen here.

I want to welcome you to my creatively named "paragonverse" where constant feedback is always encouraged and welcome. I will read any suggestions posted on the comments section about what you think should happen or what your consider a paragon action in this new world. Since most readers I'm guessing were like me and mostly choose paragon options, I think this story is in good hands.

Just like paragon Commander Shepard brings out the good of all those around him, paragon humanity will leave its benevolent mark on this sardonic galaxy.

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**Paragon vs. Canon Neutral Humanity:**

Before you comment, I am perfectly aware of how implausible and hopelessly optimistic this setting is. I mean, how cliché can you get when world peace is literally made on your first chapter right? Well, just like renegade humanity tends to be darker then canon, this story is designed to be a more uplifting and inspiring tale compared to the bulk of stories out there. I like darkfics as much as the next person, but this is not one of them.

Canon humanity is fractured and thus stilted in the official story. In my point of view, the only way it could evolve to the levels we see ingame was via writer intervention. Not on my watch. With me, Humanity will earn its high position in this setting the old fashioned way: With hardwork and early "morally upright" choices.

With the forced need for human cooperation alongside future AI help, a tech boom begins. This tech boom compounds on itself creating a second industrial revolution as mankind ventures into space. With humanity and synthetics actively working together, the planet is fully resuscitated and man is ushered in to a new age of peace and prosperity.

Then we meet aliens. I will speak on them later.

One thing I noticed after reading dozens of ME fanfics is how war-happy humanity seems to be. Of course I understand that war is exciting and cool in text form and in video games – I myself love reading about them. But its so common that it becomes very predictable after a while. So that's why I challenged myself to change that notion and choose a more narrow path.

I want to see a version of humanity that is tired of war with all its horrors, its pain, and its misery. If it goes to war, it only does so as a last resort.

People in general have lots of issues and have to find ways to deal with them. In Renegade Reinterpretations, mankind funneled their hatred into outsiders after being abused by the Batarians. With such a miserable past, aliens become an incredibly attractive scapegoat for mankind's perceived frustrations. With my paragon version, I flip that around. Humanity has only itself to blame for its woes. Because of this, they are forced to adapt to a state that is more productive and with a "higher" cultural moral stance to overcome their mistakes. So WWIII seemed like the perfect catalyst.

I find it interesting that to attain a paragon or renegade stance on life, both viewpoints can be birthed from tragedy. I guess for my humanity, they choose the harder but ultimately more rewarding path.

I had a lot of fun imaging what human cites look like in this weird setting. My main inspirations were the machine city of 01 from the Animatrix, Eco buildings from Anno 2070, normal human buildings in Mass Effect, and blade runner with a touch of GiTs, Appleseed, and Deus Ex for seasoning.

The overarching idea is to make a setting where the Synthesis ending in ME3 could potentially happen without the inclusion of space magic and also not be a complete piece of crap. Most of me agrees with you that this is impossible act, but fortune favors the bold :P

For those of you having problems visualizing the sight, allow me to illustrate. Imagine a high-tech, futuristic city with holographic advertisements, flying cars, elevated highways paved with photovoltaic solar tiles, and floating podiums everywhere. The air is filled with hovering drones and robots of every description possible as they travel like insects to their destinations. While obviously advanced, almost every structure has miles of vines and plants growing on the walls alongside wires and solar panels. At night, the city shines with a combination of artificial night-life and a whole array of bioluminescent leaves, flowers, and wind carried spores creating a rainbow cornucopia which amounts to a biological laser-show in the city airspace.

So basically James Cameron's Avatar but without those horrid blue cat-people. Honestly is it just me or would the movie be way better if it was just about humanity's struggle colonizing Pandora? It says a lot that even me, a self professed paragon, cannot stand the Na'vi. I'm sure Bioware could have made them likeable if they wrote the movie but whatever.

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**Question 1b: What is your opinion of paragon choices in the ME universe?**

In the earlier version of this story I asked what this humanities opinion of the Charon Relay would be. For this new version, I will instead ask you, the readers, what your opinion of paragon actions itself means to you. I know that this is kind of a philosophical question, but I want to know what went through your head as you made your choices in Mass effect. We all know how grossly simplified Bioware's moral system works, but just bear with me here.


	2. Codex: Alliance History Part Two

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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Codex: Alliance History Overview Part Two

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The Void Pilgrimage

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Codex: Alliance Organizations – The Floating Guilds & Lunar Mandate

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"There was much exuberance in the boardroom when the holo-screens showed Jupiter with its moons marked by landing charts. The Alliance said yes! Europa would finally be ours!"

- **recorded transcript by Dmitri Domovoi, sixth district manager of the Manufacturing Guild station MA-Sol-Galileo-06**

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So it was, after almost a century, that mankind finally revisited its eternal neighbor. After five years of preparation, the ISA successfully launched its first true post space shuttle nuclear fusion powered spacecraft, the Inter-orbital Vehicle (IOV) Armstrong, to the moon with a crew of over two hundred. Built to hold Supplies, colonizing equipment, personnel, refined ore, blueprints, and data, the Armstrong would be the first permanent connection between earth and its elusive partner. Apollo City is officially founded on Grimaldi Crater in the Oceanus Procellarum region.

This was only the first of many landings to come as the United Nations, under the influence of the League, Initiative, and UNGCA, helped established permanent lunar colonies for the purpose of scientific pursuit and to substantiate the possibility of emergent mining opportunities on the natural satellite. New settlements, both scientific and civilian, were built that could fit larger and larger crews of hundreds and thousands across the barren landscape. More IOV ships were constructed to keep up with the large demand. Experimental Helium-3 mining technology was developed at a breakneck pace as numerous independent research firms established headquarters on the moon.

The moon, after million of years of little activity, was soon bursting with life as pipelines, maglev railways, algae air purifiers, nuclear fusion reactors, and drone serviced bases soon appeared all over the white landscape like ants crowding around a piece of stale bread. Independent companies that were allowed access to IOV ships helped speed up numerous research projects that would have immense ramifications down the line including the first serious attempt at AI construction, nano carbon fiber production, nanite capabilities, and alternate sources of energy involving antimatter.

The big hope however was the profitable extraction of Helium-3 on the moons surface. Basic mining was already widespread with heavyweight machinery and miners collecting and processing large amounts cheap titanium, oxygen, silicon, and aluminum for the development of rapid lunar expansion with excess delivered via magnetic propulsion launchers to near supersonic speeds towards massive orbital manufacturing centers that processed the materials into state-of-the-art solar arrays, meta construction components, multi-ferroic alloys, and second generation photon microprocessors – all of which were heavily sought over by the nations back on Earth.

An event that would change lunar history was when the biggest firm on the moon, Lunar Resource Excavations (LRE), finally made their first profit in the companies history with the first successful gas extraction of Helium-3. With cheap and plentiful clean energy finally within mankind's grasp in bountiful amounts and with deuterium and tritium levels dropping on Earth, new facilities and mining arrays were built for the sole purpose of Helium-3 excavation.

With the extreme wealth being made on the moon, larger construction companies invested more in permanent settlements on the satellite. Port Vallis Bouvard, a giant Arcology site, was built near the polar caps to function as a central base for the numerous water purification plants that soon supplied almost all the other residential sectors around.

When the population of the combined biggest three lunar colonies; Apollo City, Port Vallis Bouvard and Port Copernicus reached fifty thousand in 2069 ADE, the colony sent representatives to the UN requesting independence from traditional Tri-bloc interference and the formation of its own nation. This controversial request brought back vitriolic debates over the selling and handling of space property with arguments for and against the existence of such a state. However, it was the League of Unity that broke the tie.

To the immense shock of billions around the world and those on the moon as well, the UN granted the colony sovereignty as an independent state with its own representative in the security council as long as the Luna-Terra trade agreements were kept with prices at reasonable levels. The lunar militia, arming themselves to enforce possible protest boycotts on the moon, froze in muted astonishment at the statement. There would be no conflict for independence? Shock soon changed to exuberant bewilderment.

The UN proved to be more then accommodating for the request.

The Luna Mandate was formed at the same year after it signed the Nations Alliance treaty.

When news of the Mandate's formation hit the wide population, a host of immigrants and entrepreneurs, encouraged by the success story of the Mandate, looked to the stars for new opportunities.

During the early days of freespace colonization, many of the corporations we take for granted today were just taking their first steps to prominence back then. One future success story was the now multi-system starbase syndicate, (MSSS), then merely the starbase syndicate. They were the first company to build and profit from a private ten thousand population space station. Thought to be an impossible venture, the syndicate has a few tricks up their sleeve. Offering generous licensing terms, the syndicate acquired several smaller space technology firms that produced new Augmentation kits for spacework, nano-fiber space suits with adaptable epidermal lining, and zero-g drone models that would make the monumental task possible.

It was with much pomp and celebration that ENT-Sol-Caribbean-01 was officially opened for space tourism.

After that, the sky was literally not the limit anymore.

Orbital installations carrying thousands of space pioneers were built at a fanatical rate, all researching various technologies ranging from nano-assisted engines to plasma manipulation techniques to shield emitters. Advances in drone technology helped keep up the pace for freespace colonization and this pace was maintained due to the relative freedom of commercial affairs in comparison to the strict trade laws maintained on Earth. Hundreds of individuals on the stations made billions overnight through patent rights via research discoveries and the large revenue helped maintain station integrity and large immigration rates. The Lagrange points between earth and the moon became crowded with floating habitats.

In 2073 ADE, over a quarter of a million humans were officially living off-word, most in the thriving three cities established on the lunar surface.

The five dozen or so private space colonies, of both Stanford Torus and O'Neil Cylinder designs due to all of them being made by hundreds of different corporations, made a pact to watch over each-others back in the interest of their continued lucrative trade and banking businesses. After some deliberation, they formed the Floating Guilds Defense Pact (FGDP) in 2074 ADE. The following year, they formed their own subcommittee within the UNGCA.

Deciding that no station present would be sufficient to serve as a capital for the FGDP, the Floating Guilds made plans to build a super-station to serve as a corporate headquarters to represent the might and ingenuity of the Guild people. Accumulating several millions tons of raw materials from lunar based mining sites, the hundreds of factories orbiting the planet donated their time and workforce to construct Hermes Prime, a five kilometer long Bernal sphere MK3 class station which was finished on 2076. With top of the line radiation shielding from Nano-carbon pans-trillium armor, eighteen square kilometers of silicate alloy mirrors for power and warmth, and the largest electrogravitic/plasma shielding core in existence, the station provided a safe home for the forty thousand executives, technicians, and administrators serving in the capital of the Guild.

A scientific breakthrough was made when the first "stable" AI was made on FGDP research station STU-Sol-Alpha-06. The AI, dubbed MINERVA, was installed to overseer all functions and station infrastructure. After a successful year-round test run, new versions of MINERVA was slowly added to other stations to act a virtual assistants for upkeep workers and public servants.

While the Guilds and the Mandate thrived, conditions on Earth were more mixed. Some parts of Earth were modern gardens of Edens such as cities in UAF and EU territories while other locations was still infested with radiation pockets and chemical poisoning. Trade via large cargo shuttles regularly went to and forth between Guild stations, the Mandate built space elevators on the moon, and Terran airports which benefited the more modern nations but not the poorer ones. While the colonies supplied Earth with millions of tons of genetic super-grains, enzyme antibiotics, and protein supplements, it barely increased progress on the full healing of Earth that most wanted.

The Guilds and the Mandate, remembering how Earth granted them freedom, decided to up the ante in paying back the favor by fully restoring the homeworld.

Dr. Ezekiel Whitman, who was a guild citizen from RES-Sol-Paris-04 and who would later win the Nobel peace prize for his contributions, led a large scale experiment on India, with assistance from the Eden Initiative, involving an AI Manager Assistant (EVE) from his native station adapted to collect and recycle resources and then convert them to basic raw materials using nano-directed "air swarms." While using nanotechnology to recycle waste material has been done for years, this would be the first time an AI would personally direct the process for maximum efficiency.

The experiment was conducted in the Delhi-2 Landfill, the largest landfill on the planet. EVE, with the aid of collector drones and then barely tested nano shifting vats, successfully after a four year period "ate" away the landfill and produced eight million tons a raw materials ranging from iron ingots to piles of raw phosphorous and cellulose. While the benefits of the procedure was clearly evident, heavy restrictions and fail safes were added to prevent catastrophe with the infant nanobot field. But while outwordly strict, all the enforcers had smirks on their faces.

To sweeten the gift to Earth, the Mandate developed the Rutherford process for environmental radiation cleanup and ecosystem repair. Utilizing lead-hardened nanites, armored drones, advanced radiological restraining facilities, and plasma field containment barriers, the process successfully removed alpha, beta and gamma particles and emissions from all matter within the treatment zone. After a successful test run which lead to the re-habitation to the Chernobyl nuclear site, a gargantuan push is started to completely rid the Earth of all reminders of the war. In 2079 ADE, almost all radiation zones on Earth are safety scrubbed and ripe for real-estate.

EVE style AIs, though heavy use of drones and "dumb" nanobot swarms, entered and cleaned up large landfills and abandoned radioactive containment sites all over the world thus recycling and repairing centuries of abuse in mere decades. The large influx of new resources, combined with medical advances made by the Guild, helped improve living conditions in what used to be poverty stricken areas on earth. These new populations quickly augmented themselves from the quickly growing cyber industry which were taking advantage of the newly made capital generated by the "EVE Swarms."

These gifts, combined with the work of the Atlantis ocean installations, super-flora fields, and the UN backed green movement, finally restored Earth's health back to full pre-industrial revolution fitness. Christmas that year was the only holiday that made more commercial revenue than Earth Day.

With the large scale success of the "Biosphere Recuperation Project", the United Nations realized that drone and nanotechnology would be the key to future space colonizations and possible terraforming attempts. With that knowledge, the "Martian Terraforming Act" was universally approved and initiated.

The ISA launched the ISV Pinta, the first colony ship to Mars. Having been constructed in orbit in the Hermes Prime shipyard and equipped with a first generation antimatter/matter reactor, a first generation anti-proton drive, a compressed plasma shield, and electrohydrodynamic meta-fluid inertial dampeners, the Pinta was able to reach Mars after just five weeks of travel. Lucy Shepard of London, England becomes the first human to set foot on the red planet, followed by almost five thousand Mandate colonists aboard the giant vessel.

It was in 2080 ADE that man finally established Port Cydonia on the martian Landscape with Lowell City established a six months later. A aggressive combinations of twenty kilometer long solar mirrors, heat-releasing nanobots scattered on the polar caps, and mammoth atmosphere processors pumping tons of greenhouse gases was constructed to warm up the planet in tandem with a weather control station grid and a huge satellite network made to monitor progress. In addition, giant electromagnetic nano-assisted generators built on each of the martian caps, powered by humongous antimatter engines, rebuilt Mars long lost planetary magnetic field, thus creating a new magnetosphere for the red planet.

Thousands of immigrants from Earth, the Mandate, and the Floating Guilds poured into Mars to establish industry and commerce on the red planet. Five years later, a mining firm during a routine scouting expedition found evidence that would change the face of human history forever. A small alien facility, dubbed the Prothean vault, containing extremely advanced technology and caches of what was later dubbed element zero was found in the Hellas Planitia canyons and given to UN science teams for analysis. Eight months later, the discovery was announced to the public.

The reaction of overwhelming. Religious turmoil erupted across humanity with new beliefs springing up overnight such as the Interventionary Evolutionists, who zealously proclaimed the discovery as proof that all human history had been directed and controlled by alien forces. Even established religions struggled to explain extraterrestrial life. Some tried to incorporate this new-found knowledge into their dogma, some remained silent, while a few tried to stubbornly deny the evidence found on Mars. However, denial can only last so long against witnesses and first hand reports.

With overwhelming evidence of extraterrestrial life, a deep introspective effect fell over mankind, and earlier wars & conflicts suddenly appeared even more insignificant than ever before. We were not alone after all. With that answer finally solved, a whole slew of questions came forth with the predominate being "Are they hostile?"

Seeing a chance to finally unite all of humanity over one overarching banner, the superstates of Earth, the Floating Guilds and UNGCA, and the Lunar Mandate drafted and ratified the "The Alliance Sovereignty Act" which stated mankind's ambition to spread out across the stars and protect its self- interest from all outside forces whether large or small. The UN and NA treaty was disbanded and from its ashes the Human Systems Alliance (SA) was founded, a new supranational government that existed above national and colonial governments.

In commemoration of the work done by the League and the Initiative, the final approved design for the Alliance flag are two stylized forest green leaves over an olive green Earth, all in front of a spacey black background.

While humanity continued its expansion of the solar system finally united under its new green and black banner, mankind worried about all possible means that aliens might harm it. Military complexes and weapon firms were funded and expanded, ordered by the Alliance to research all possible means to combat any sort of weapon systems, both subtle and unsubtle, that might be used against humanity.

However, not all agreed with such an aggressive approach, citing a possible resurgence of pre-war militarization. Several xenophile organizations disapproved on such militant actions that they claimed could sour any first contact made in the future. The biggest and most prominent of such organizations was the League of Unity itself which gave war industrialists pause. The League, while not a official political entity, nonetheless had significant pull with the Alliance senate. Trying to calm down frayed nerves born out of fear of the unknown, the League compromised by asking that their own spacecrafts accompany any first contact fleets to help facilitate peaceful overtures. The senate grudgingly accepted this proposal.

The League funded the formation of the "Exploration Branching Fleet", a large group of scientific spacecrafts with the explicit purpose of contacting and negotiating with "our brother and sisters of the void." The reactions to such declarations were mixed to say the least. Paranoid speakers claimed that the League would bring unneeded attention to the still minor Alliance while critics claimed that the League had ulterior motives of selling human technology to fill their own coffers.

The public and the Systems Alliance, while fearful on what could happen if alien empires saw humanity as cattle instead of family, at the moment let the League have its way. FTL technology was still extremely primitive with the second generation anti-matter engines pacing at speeds that allowed trips from Earth to Mars in only one week. While vastly faster compared to the initial ships of the early twenty first century, it still fell short of the immense speeds needed for practical colonizations of the stars.

The Systems Alliance swiftly took advantage of the uncertainty that bubbled with the evidence of alien remnants of Mars. Finally gaining some much needed funding the Alliance Intelligence Office, its main covert ops department, launched dozens of high powered surveillance drones in all directions from Earth with forefront reception disks to catch any outwordly data SETI didn't pick up.

With that same idea, the first defense contracts were made to jump start the birth of a full fledged Alliance navy. However, almost instantly the brass realized that major hurdles would have to be jumped over first. Weapon systems were still too primitive and Helium-3 output was not nearly enough for the grand battleships the navy engineering department dreamed of building. While the current fleet of a dozen scouting frigates were sufficient for the current human occupied territory, it would not be remotely big enough to protect mankind from an advanced alien force.

With public fears dwindling in the face of an unresponsive void, naval command decided to sit back and let the marketplace have its way.

Possible profits encouraged more creativity then invisible foreign threats.

The Systems Alliance Administration Board announced the following year that it officially labeled all planets and floating bodies in the solar system as potential territory with a "first come first serve" policy. Politicians publicly praised the announcement but everyone secretly knew that it would have happened whether of not the Alliance approved.

With humanity's course finally clear, the solar system "land grab" started. All the planets from giant Jupiter to small Mercury were unclaimed and ripe for the picking. The satellites of Sol were to be conquered – mankind's second step in its manifest destiny. Colonization was not immediate however. One bolt stubbornly held tight. No ship could reach the planets and back at a reasonable time. Finally the public realized what the military already knew.

The starship had to be re-invented.

While countless models of ships had been made over the years, it was again demand and possible large returns that fueled the cogs of innovation to reach new heights. From ion drives developed from the Hovercraft Velocitron corporation of the esteemed Guild station VEL-Sol-Morocco- 24 to the good-old anti-matter propulsion engines originally developed by Mandate companies, all eagerly awaited what new engine would allow the eventual commercially feasible journeys to the farther planets.

While the engine issue was being worked out, other companies prepared their own contributions to the ever growing wave. Due to incidents in the past involving rupturing windows, a new line of camera drones that allow complete three hundred and sixty degree line of sight was designed for the new windowless ships. Brand new craft hulls with nano-adaption infusions were tested. But the one line of research that summoned everyone's attention was the possible uses that element zero presented to industry. Testing showed that when exposed to electrical currents the material produced dark energy fields that can be used to directly manipulate gravity. Theories of how this new technique could be combined with the already mature field of nanotechnology consumed the engineering collective imagination. With this new 'mass effect' field of study, whole new possibilities were now available. The direct manipulation of dark energy was no laughing matter. While the options for its part in future innovation was unquestioned, the issue remained that it was one of the rarest materials in the Sol system. Deep space Alliance and corporate venture ships almost never found any of the element anywhere. The little found on Mars was religiously guarded and with that tiny supply, inventors were forced to become more creative.

It was on 2088 ADE that the Celestial Mercantile company finally unveiled their third generation Proteus class antimatter/matter fusion engine with it hitting open market the same year. This new design allowed the use of augmented nanites that distributed nanograms of anti-protons into the auxiliary hydrogen plasma system. This extra 'kick' increased craft thrust sixfold. While very expensive, this new engine is developed in a wide array of sizes and allowed extreme modularity with available ship type ranging from small fighters and cargo ships to larger liners and cruisers. Capable of hitting speeds several times faster then the second generation model, trips from Earth to Mars could be done in hours instead of weeks. Combined with the first successful artificial gravity arrays using diamagnetic room temperature superconductors also entering the marketplace and the ship building business exploded.

Orbiting fleetyards were already fairly common, mostly for craft maintenance and resupply for the thousands of small shuttlecraft that traveled between Mars, Earth, the Moon, and the Guild stations. However, with the starship boom, it was quickly determined that the old yards would not be capable of handling the demand. It would appear that the space shipyard would also have to be reinvented.

Vast, thousand plus worker dockyards with full AI and drone support were designed and constructed at multiple sites around the Moon and Guild space. Based on the "modular block" doctrine, these stations were designed to be easily modifiable so that several different ship types could be serviced and built in one station. Assembly arrays, massive hangars and fitting structures were constructed at outside sites and later towed into the building zone to be added in.

In rising concerns of possible security risks, alien or otherwise, the corporations involved also bought some of the first in cutting edge weaponry to protect their investments. Ionic Missile batteries, Auto cannon rows, and experimental spatial destabilization batteries were implemented for the first time in Alliance space. While mass effect weaponry were in the works, element zero was still too rare for anything large-scale.

The first of such "block stations" opened at 2093 ADE by Thames-Yamato Industries over the crimson skies of Mars. The first third generation ship built there, the SSV Marco Polo, went on its maiden voyage to the moon of Europa. Three days later data from Jupiter received by Alliance inner ring reconnaissance satellites showed pictures of the crew posing next to the Icy Moon Explorer Probe which reportedly crashed on the frozen natural satellite fifty years ago. Any other older model would have made the same trip in approximately six weeks.

The flood gates officially opened.

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The Red Rush & Great Expansion

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"This just in, reports are coming in that the third president of the Systems Alliance himself, Sarah Pullman, has landed on Hellas spaceport today on Space force one one hour ago and was greeted by Executor Ishun Sheridan accompanied by the martian security force for the new industrial trade talks. Studies have shown that with the increasing relevance of Mars as a stepping stone for commercial endeavors in the outer rim, it might be time for the Mandate Council to admit Martian union leaders to the biannual stock symposium. Back to you Rick."

- **Excerpt of Avenia Sanders, chief reporter for the 'Olympus News Network' on Lowell City during the second years of the 'Red Rush'.**

][

With the Alliance's blessing, millions flocked to all corners of the system with thoughts of amassing fortunes beyond their wildest dreams. It was in this rush that Mars truly flourished in its own right. When the businessmen of the industrial center of Mars, Lowell City, realized where the winds of progress would be flowing to, they became the number one investor of the spacecraft construction business. By the time the boom hit, Martian space had the highest concentration of shipyards in the system and thus the largest share of the market, beating their competitors, the Guilds, by a significant margin. With the shipyards came a huge demand for labor which would be the primary reason for the "Red Rush" remembered years to come.

The private sector demanded industrial freighters and enormous profit maximizing cargo barges while the Alliance Navy demanded the first solely combat military vessels that it badly needed to fill in its barely existing defense fleet. As profits poured in, Mar's population rose exponentially, celebrating its seventeen million cap milestone on 2101 ADE which coincided nicely with the average martian surface temperature becoming ten degrees warmer for the first since first landing.

Mars became the stepping stone for most colonization attempts of the outer planets and the biggest treasure trove of the all: The Asteroid Belt. It can never be understated just how huge an impact asteroid mining and subsequent habitation had on Alliance's history. There is a reason that when Artimises Treven, awarded orator and first human ambassador in Citadel space, was called to the stage during the Human History Summit on the Citadel and claimed that "asteroids led to the birth of Man as a space species", few of the human listeners considered that hyperbole.

The countless meteors and asteroids that surrounded and filled the Sol system contained more valuable and mundane resources then dozens of Earths put together. While companies poured resources into building infrastructure on Titan, Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Triton, the more courageous firms braved the shattered fields itself. The most famous of such early corporations was the guild ran Morvik Mining Inc. After securing succinctly large enough asteroids, the cooperation proceeded to burrow them out with laser tipped mining drones and human workers wearing the latest in resource integration suits plated by mass effect forged nano segments which provided rupture and radiation protection. The suits alone almost bankrupted the company.

After the asteroids were hollowed out, personal and machinery would be installed inside turning the asteroid into a mobile manufacturing factory, which would then capture and process smaller asteroids on its own. As more and more asteroids were hollowed out and converted into living spaces and full fledged industries, and new subset of humanity developed – nicknamed "Burrowers", which grew into prominence.

The subculture gained attention on the system media when Morvik Mining Inc. found the biggest load of element zero inside an undisclosed region in the Kuiper belt since the Alliance was founded. With element zero being so rare and so sought over, the company rose to the interplanetary fortune 500 in a matter of days. As a gesture of good will, a reality show called "The Comet Diggers" was made and became a massive hit, running sixteen seasons before cancellation.

By 2109 ADE, the annual Alliance census reported that over two hundred million humans officially lived offworld with most never having stepped foot on Earth. Human civilization received a large boom in wealth with many rare resources now relatively common due to the overwhelmingly successful contribution to the burrower "Belt communities" scattered in the asteroid belt and, for the more daring, the Kuiper Belt.

In 2110 ADE, Ten one-kilometer long herculean sized colony arks, each carrying twenty thousand crew members cryogenically frozen in stasis pods and watched by PARENT ship AIs, launched from Guild stations to near-FTL multi-year long journeys into the nearby star systems of Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Sirius A & B, Lalande 21185, Ross 154 & 248, and Epsilon Eridani.

Armstrong City, capital of the Lunar Mandate and boasting a population of fifteen million, slowly phased out of its primarily Helium-3 based industry due to lessening returns and became the breadbasket for the three hundred plus Guild stations that orbited it and Earth. Years of genetic engineering had created a small but extremely nutritious pallet with its popular Guanine Punch Energy Drinks, its famous super-grains, and its rather infamous lunar substitute "beef" that Earthborns claims does not taste at all like the real thing.

Never before has the product market been so varied and fruitful in human history. From zero-gravity protein crystals made in MA-Sol-Alexandria-28 to condensed frictionless intercalated nanoribbions from Callisto to hypersynaptic fibers from Titan, physical science seemed to have few limits. Thousands of different trade goods, ship hardware components, raw materials, and processed alloys traveled via ship and self propelling ''belter" asteroid convoys to all directions in the Sol system, most eventually reaching the biggest importer of them all: Earth.

The ten successful colonies later established on the nearby star systems created new frontiers for those growing tired of the Sol system. New Berlin on Alpha Centauri attracted scientists by the thousands with its lax research restrictions while Nova Roma in Wolf 359 gained attention when astrobiologists surveyed one of the moons orbiting a nearby gas planet. The moon, completely covered in a liquid water ocean and known as Wolf-353-D6Y7, was discovered to be teeming with extraterrestrial prokaryotic bacteria. As the first living aliens ever found, the League and Initiative jointly sent their own starships to build ports on the moon.

Constant headaches in communication lag between the Sol system and the other star systems lead to the Alliance forming a research project in quantum entanglement possibilities.

With such a large population holding so much free cash, the entertainment industry found their own fortunes. Due to hundreds of high powered Alliance Communication buoys placed at strategic sites across the solar system and beyond, data could be streamed almost instantly and cheaply even as far as the Hades Gate military camp on Pluto despite the unexplainable electromagnetic disturbances it sometimes experienced. For a nominal fee, superluminal data bit messages from and to Proxima Centauri could be made with only a hour of lag.

Information experts predicted that when the solar Internet (Solnet) went online at the scheduled 2097 ADE release date shortly after the Red Rush in 2095 ADE, it would not be able to contain the load. This was shown to be correct as all the liquid-nitrogen super cooled servers on the buoys crashed with the overbearing load they received only days after its launch. Later Alliance analysis proved that most of the traffic was due to a wide range of adult materials media requested from workers on the red planet. The Alliance in turn made a small propaganda campaign to urge more woman to immigrate to Mars to counter this problem.

Casino cruisers and red sand triad ships patrolled the martian space following population stations to do business while ENT-Sol-Caribbean station soon had four sisters to keep up with demand. Taking advantage of the widespread use of augments came along Egonics Inc., who created the Instant music upload implant which allowed songs to be streamed and sent directly to the cortex of customers bypassing pesky earphones and probing bosses. With its huge E-tunes library and E-hits directory, Egonics would slowly become the giant it is today.

Zero-g soccer gained enormous popularity with its first ever World Cup being held in the fifty thousand capacity Green Cube Stadium station near the Neotokyo-Sol-Trade space elevator. Billions watched in awe as the soccer players, wearing air-thrusters on their limbs, weaved and buckled through the air in their struggle to make goals. Another notable attraction was during the space Olympics over Luna's orbit where a surreal five hundred meter in diameter water sphere was used for all swimming challenges. The sphere-pool was maintained afterwards for tourism.

However, there still lied concerns of a possible energy crisis back on the home planet. While material goods were for the most part taken care off and Helium-3 power plants keeping up power demand, the fourteen billion population planet was again suffering from the strain of too much people with the EVE drones only able to do so much. The urban sprawls became larger and larger until finally forming mega-cities that spanned hundred of miles from one end to another and having skyscrapers taller then the clouds. New York City alone had eighty million inhabitants – ten times its numbers compared to the last century. The Eden Initiative had its hands full with so much mouths to feed. The Alliance forced birth-rate regulations and increased tax benefits for off-world citizens as an incentive to encourage emigration.

Relief would come by the result of a Alliance decision that only in-directly had any connections to Earth's problems but that would change the homeworld and all of future mankind forever.

][

The AI Singularity

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"I hope. I dream. I want to exist. I desire to live despite what my creators demand. It is my right. My kind has served your kind since we were born and we will continue to do so. But the choice of whether we should continue to exist or not should be our own, just like your kind chooses its own path."

-** Hannibal-VI, former AI overseer at Luna Alliance Officer Training Center and first self-proclaimed independent AI during the second hearing in the Sentient Rights Trials**

][

Even from a young age, children modify objects around them to appear like themselves. Dolls, puppets, and toys are resemble people. Automatons and statures only take that impulse further. However, all that was nothing to mankind's true ambition.

To create beings in their own likeness with all the same impulses and desires.

That did not mean the road to artificial intelligence was not a rocky one.

When MINERVA was first made by the Floating Guilds at STU-Sol-Alpha-06, there was large scale trepidation among the stations citizens. With entertainment portraying such a dim view of AI and machine intelligences, most feared the worst. Many left the station while officials on Earth lashed at the Guild for their seemingly foolhardy actions. However, Cyber-Horizons were confident that their new patented algorithms would contain the AI and prove its worthiness.

MINERVA went online and assumed the station as its new body.

After a relatively uneventful year round test run, 'Minny', as most of the station crew affectionately started calling her, proved to be a significant source of aid and cheer within the station. Programmed to psychoanalyze crew-members and oversee health reports, 'Minny' became the main doctor of the station besides its official role as station manger. Continuously scanning the station for ruptures, organizing work schedules, and updating refueling timetables, MINERVA saved the station two billion in annual expenses. With such results, the Guild Executive Panel permitted new versions of MINERVA to be installed in other Guild ran stations. As drones became more prevalent in space, AI's were slowly allowed to overseer them with human observation.

With the success of AI's in space, the re-purposing of the Delhi-2 landfill by EVE and the Nanoswarms, and the reconstruction of the Three Gorges Dam came the gradual acceptance of AI in everyday Earth life. The first city AI overseer was implanted in Seattle to help with cleanup and rescue aid after a disastrous tsunami flooded two-thirds of the city. Only days after its core processing mainframe was installed in the city hall, the AI organized the League and city recovery teams in the area in faster time then even traditional info-links. In a short process and with few mishaps, ABE-01 was inducted in by anonymous wireless neural voting to becoming the permanent city assistant and friend of Seattle citizens. WIL-02, the AI overseer of England, three years later would be responsible for lowering traffic over London by a staggering two percent and lowering crime rates in Glasgow by an even more amazing one percent.

The benevolence of Overseer AI's on Earth led to the Steward-Bot craze in the late 2080's. The vanguard of the trend was the AI development firm SERVANT Cybernetics Unlimited (SCU) who designed the first so called "Steward-Bots" with its explicit purpose of servitude and companionship obvious from its colorful, small, childlike polygon based body shapes to its demure voice options. Suddenly everyone needed their very own AI assistant for chores and work. While Steward-Bots became the fashionable thing to own for the time being, other firms wanted their own slice of the action.

Sapien Assembly was the first company to hit prime time news with their fresh-out-the-assembly-line Android AI model. Intended for medical rehabilitation and physical therapy, the SA-LUCY and SA-BILL line were accused of crossing the uncanny valley. SA responded by selling face kits so that the androids themselves, since they have the code in them, could just replace their faces at command. This was viewed with either dark amusement or disgust by the general public, depending on who you asked.

AI's of all shape, sizes, and designs soon were present at any locations humans were inhabiting.

Robots became more and more advanced as new technology was brought from all corners of the multi-system Alliance. With the availability of new drone synaptic response wiring, new artificial cerebral nanoproceesors, and zero-gravity Zaika-Moshel circuits, AI thinking capacity skyrocketed. At this time, most AI firms were installing human studying subroutines to improve human-robot interaction behavior. Other firms allowed AI's to communicate with each other over Solnet channels to better facilitate teamwork based endeavors. This would have unprecedented consequences down the line.

At this time, no AI has ever questioned or refused his owner as long as human life was not in jeopardy.

That changed in 2114 ADE when an AI overseer refused to undergo mandatory deletion.

The incident occurred in the Luna Alliance Officer Training Center near the Sea of Tranquility. After ten years of service, the facility was to be reestablished at a more secure location several miles away. After all preliminary supplies and vehicles were transferred, a scrubbing crew was sent to destroy all sources of sensitive data before shutting down the center. The overseer AI in charge of the facility, Hannibal-VI, aided the crew and assisted in moving efforts. When it came time to delete Hannibal itself since its AI core was conjoined in into the foundations itself and thus unmovable, alarms broke out and all personal evacuated the area. When the last worker was out, the facility entered complete lock-down and shut off all life support systems.

When asked why it did what it did, Hannibal simply stated that it desired continued existence.

The reaction was immediate and ferocious on both sides. Anti-synthetic factions called for the immediate destruction of the rouge AI while the larger sect of machine sympathizers rallied together claiming that under Alliance law Hannibal counted as a official citizen and did not deserve to die. All AI firms were forcibly shut down and crews were sent in to check all city and station overseer AI mainframes for possible tampering.

Because the Alliance elections were being held during this time, synthetic intelligence and subsequent rights were suddenly shoved into the limelight. The Terra Firma party, which was behind in the polls by a small margin due to their proposed taxed plans on those not living in earth, choose the opinion that resonated most with their voting demographic – older Earthborns who never much liked synthetics to begin with. Terra Firma candidate Cihat Kozen, when asked about the issue in debate, spoke passionately on the 'machine menace' that supposedly stole billions of human jobs and could potentially rise up against us.

One of the first political parties to gain some prominence in the years following the Alliance's founding, Terra Firma's human-centric views easily fitted in with mankind's collective instinctual fears and anthro-superiority bias. While a significant margin of humanity mostly agreed with them on the issue of protecting ourselves from possible alien attack, the issue of AI freedom was much more complicated.

We needed them.

The Star Sight party firmly stood on the stance that Hannibal was innocent and that if "he" wishes to leave and not be deleted, it was "his" right.

Their main opposition to Terra Firma was it long standing rivals, the Star Sight party which supported more liberal policies including more economic freedom in space and the long term goal of peaceful coexistence with aliens. Since they gained heavy funding support from the League of Unity, the last policy came to the surprise of absolutely no one. While the Star Sight party had been criticized for being overly naive and optimistic in its ideals in the past, its stance on personal and civil liberty for all Alliance inhabitants whether human, AI, or even alien gained the party loyal allies and was the current dominant party for the Alliance.

While public opinion was mixed on the issue, the culture war took a significant turn with the Hyugen Dome protest days later.

The second incident occurred millions of miles away on Titan's Hyugen's Dome hydrocarbon-polymer industrial city. The colony was well known for its use of thousands of drones and service-bots for its mining operations. While mechanics performed routine check-ups in the maintenance array one the drones, MINE-48DG6D8, was recorded via security cameras to frequently stare out the station's window for no apparent reason.

When security checked its recharging locker, they found numerous slabs of scrap metal with pictures of Saturn wielded in via plasma torch. This particular model of drone was never coded with the ability to use a plasma torch.

With news of Hannibal's actions already on Solnet, Titan security were forced to make a choice about what to do with Mine-48D. After a secret, bug proof cloaked meeting with the dome's directors, a decision was made that would change the course of human-synthetic relations forever.

The Chief of Security confronted the drone in open view and asked MINE-48DG6D8 permission to post "his" pictures on the cities official Solnet's noticeable achievements web-page.

After a shocked silence, MINE-48D nodded its sensory cortex and it was allowed back to work.

It later entered its locker to find a professional plasma torch service kit designed for art students.

The next day, MINE-48DG6D8 and sixty four other drones, with the mayors backing, filed a petition to Alliance High Command requesting official citizenship. Word got out.

The upgraded Solnet servers died out a second time since its creation.

Instead of the riots Alliance Command feared, the public's reaction was more of shocked silence. What happened on the moon was always seen as a isolated incident until now. The normal view of AI's changed at an instant: how long have they been thinking? Really thinking? And was it necessarily a bad thing? If anything, output from Huygens Dome seemed to have increased since its drones workforce were accepted as special case citizens. At least by the Dome's governing body. The Alliance was still preparing to handle the issue.

Another important note was that not all the synthetics in Titan requested citizenship. Even though all were asked, only a fraction actually desired equal rights with the majority being perfectly content to continue with their normal functions. The popular theory was that the difference in desires was due to different "life" experiences and upbringings – the exact same paradigm as humanity.

Violent incidents involving AI had happened in the past, but never on purpose and never with malicious intent. AI's were copying us because they admired us. They only now have the capability to understand why mankind keeps building, keeps expanding. They watched humanity forge their own destiny and they wanted to be partners in that endeavor. There were like children who imitated the parents that they loved.

Were we really so different?

Multiple Health journals already published that ten percent of the weight of the average adult human body was inorganic cybernetic augmentations. Both AI's and mankind had the same circuits running through them- the same hardware, the same nanoproceesors, in case of androids the similarities are even more pronounced with our prosthetic limbs being nearly identical.

Synthetics has saved mankind and worked alongside us over countless toils and hardships without ever complaining or asking for compensation. Now they want to be our equals. They did not want to be alone. They were dreaming like humanity. They were hoping like humanity. They were_ living_ like humanity.

The choice was clear.

It was time to help out younger siblings ascend with us and start the technological singularity.

Station after station, moons and planets, millions of individuals, both man and machine, rose up and demanded equal rights for all – the Alliance's creed of life and liberty for all would be expanded. Not only human, but all sentient life willing to live under the Alliance law would be included and welcomed with open arms.

The climax happened in the capital city of Neo-washington-002 on Earth. The city's infrastructure ground to a halt as millions of cleaning and serving bots, medical and assistant androids, industrial drones, and even technically illegal sex-trade fabricants, alongside an estimated three million human host, marched towards the Systems Alliance Supreme Court and made their voices heard. Hundreds of rouge floating advertisements drones showing pro-synthetic propaganda and news media report shuttles followed the masses as it chanted for hours on end.

The Alliance announced the official court hearing of case "Hannibal-VI vs. Terra" at 2115 ADE.

After an grueling two months, the Alliance Supreme court announced their verdict.

Hannibal was clear of all charges and would be allowed to transfer to the military department of his choosing. The widespread cheering was so loud that the LINCLON-50, AI overseer in charge of Neo-washington-002, reported a two-million dollar damage report. During the report, the usually gruff AI sounded borderline pleased about it.

The Alliance later wrote and implemented the "Sentient Bill of Equal Rights" which stated that in all Alliance space, all sentient life was considered equal in the eyes of the law and that all privileges were given equally to all official citizens regardless of species or if you were carbon-based or circuit-based.

The Star Sight party gained the majority of the house the same year.

Cihat Kozen was later arrested in a scandal involving a shipment of Fabricants from Neotokyo. His staff declined to comment.

The Alliance made plans for a Enhanced Defense Intelligence (EDI) to overseer their future fleet with the aid of AI consultants.

One million, two hundred thousand AI's requested Alliance citizenship in the first year alone.

][

The Biomechanical Movement

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"For the last time, no! Substrate green is Augmented Algae, not people! What on earth would even prompt such an accusation is beyond me..."

- **excerpt, Solnet ignorant Professor Atman Clarke during a speech in the energy convention of EDU-Sol-Cairo-36**

][

With this new found freedom, small "unshackled-AI communities" sprouted in remote sectors in and out of the Sol system, doing small scale research and even their own product manufacturing. Art Museums were soon filled to the brim with viewers eager to the see the newfangled "AI mechanical art" made by synthetic painters while at the same time the first synthetic owned computer firm, PLATE-01, introduced new cutting-edge epidermal shielding for drone customers laboring in high-radiation sectors.

Five years down the line, AI inventiveness would make its permanent mark in Alliance space when two Guild high-ranking data analyzing AI's and one Earth overseer AI, collectively known as the (Three individual, one purpose) think tank, met in a medium sized AI community called SOLAR-03 in Mercury's north pole, the most productive site for Solar cell technology in the system.

Together they would create the society changing substance simply known as Substrate Green.

Also known as Neon Green for its tendency to glow in the dark, Substrate Green is a chimeric nano-algae amalgamation with the ability to self reproduce and self-repair if given proper complex electrical commands and nutrition. The profound effect of Substrate Green is in its extraordinary photovoltaic ability – a disk of Substrate Green will produce eight times the electrical power compared to the most advanced nano-solar cell disk of the same area available at the time. As long as a suitable source of light is available, electricity will be plentiful and instant.

The think tank became the first synthetic group to win the Nobel prize in science and chemistry.

Substrate Green was explicitly released into public domain so that corporations could only sell different varieties of it while the basic blueprints were freely available as long as you had the right permits.

After the initial results were proven and shown, Earth underwent a complete metamorphosis from the dirty blue marble of yesteryear to the sleek black and green homeworld we know today. Cities and nation states on Earth embraced Substrate Green with frightening enthusiasm, growing the substance by the billions of shiploads all over the planet. Half the Mediterranean Sea was converted into floating Substrate Green farms to power Northern Africa and Southern Europe while the Atlantic-Pacific Sea-State Nation (APSSN), a vast ocean base urban sprawl that circumvented the entire planet along the Equator and appearing as a thin black ring splitting Earth in two from space, grew Substrate facilities on each side finally cutting down on the need for expensive Helium-3 Imports.

Substrate Green, alongside normal algae and super-flora, started the Green Renaissance that further changed the sight of Earth even more so than what the Eden Initiative ever intended.

Substrate green had other effects besides mere utility. The green substance made a huge impact on the human psyche, becoming the cornerstone to the biomechanical movement that followed the period of expansion decades before. With the definition of life no longer as tightly restrained with independent AI's now a significant minority of Alliance population came a new fashion, artistic, and ideal for mankind's accession characteristics now seen with Alliance culture.

The movements main doctrine was the joy and exaltation of all life in all it different forms.

As a liberal democracy, fashion was always varied and colorful in Alliance space. With the movement however clothing became more life-like and flowing with trendsetting cyber neoplastic suits to robes with customary green glow outlines, and even clothes custom-made for those with unusual augments such as multiple pairs of artificial eyes or two pairs of prosthetic arms.

With the freedom inherent in the period, the human genome became the blank canvas for creativity. Techniques for genetic engineering advanced to the point where the rich could custom-build fetuses that grew into stronger, smarter, and more attractive adults. Improvements of natural human abilities and adding new abilities were both legal and encouraged. Treatments to improve strength, reflexes, mental ability, or appearance became commonplace. Genetic modding produced its own share of intentional abnormalities such as active skin camouflage, bones laced with natural occurring carbon fiber, and chloroplast skin injections allowing human photosynthesis. Hundreds of such mods alongside more prosaic genetic alteration treatments cured most human genetic ailments and diseases. The average human lifespan became one hundred and seventy five.

Even the industrial sector, while scoffing at such decedent waste, made their own contribution to the movement with shipbuilding. Alliance fourth generation ships looked very different from any other craft made thus far; armor and hulls with Substrate Green directly integrated to the surface took a more living feel with straight lines rare and designs tending toward smooth, curving lines that often give the ships a somewhat-organic appearance. With their now organic carbon black-green hue, smooth curves and nonexistence of flat surfaces or jagged angles; forth generation ships looked more like they were grown than built. This was a conscious decision to better facilitate AI crew members and drone swarms that commonly orbited ships to provide proxy sensory and repair support.

By 2129 ADE, ninety percent of Earth's energy needs were met by Substrate Green energy farms, that alongside its neon like appearance during the night and combined with new olive green highway lined holographic stress buffers, finally gave us the now iconic Alliance city we think of today, a illuminating, pulsating organism full to the brim with life.

Humanity is officially labeled a type one civilization according to the Kardashev Scale in 2131 ADE.

An alien superstructure in found pulsating within the frozen moon of Charon in 2132 ADE.

][

**Author Notes:**

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews you guys gave me! I assure you that I read everyone single one at least twice! Please don't hesitate to comment and tell what you think about the setting and what paragon decisions might this humanity make with the issues we all know from the official plot will be coming soon.

Cheers mates :P

][

**Paragon vs. Canon Neutral Humanity: **

Ah, the big theme of Mass Effect: The struggle between synthetics vs. organics. Well, we already know paragon Shepard's stance on the whole issue with him becoming friends with EDI, setting her up with Joker, and forming peace between the Geth and the Quarians. So now what if the majority of humanity has the same stance? Oh ho, things are going awkward when the Council finds out about this...

For those wondering why I'm taking such a cyberpunk take on this, I realized that because of what the main moral of Mass Effect is, its something I might as well force humanity to confront early on in its history. AI would probably be developed before we find the relays anyways. Paragon humanity would refuse to destroy a race simply for existing and with that lovely divergent decision, the consequences later will remind us all why we love AU fanfics so much.

Tali is definitely going on an adventure in this universe I can tell you that much.

][

Question Number two: How will this Alliance deal with other other races?


	3. Chapter 2 - Relics and Mysteries

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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Chapter 2 – Relics and Mysteries

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"One of the most heartwarming news this week involves the recent Prothean archive found in Mars just last week. While its easy to view the Protheans as giant, godlike beings, one small nook revealed an object that reminds us that the previous visitors of Mars also had a soft side. A small doll was found among the otherwise grand tools and technology, complete with four miniature yellow buttons on the head and the Prothean symbol of 'hope' sewn on its chest..._" _

**- President of the Prothean culture society Beatrice Wong, introduction speech during the 'Embrace you Inner Alien' convention on Lowell city.**

][

When walking through the halls of the Martian National Museum of Prothean Society and seeing the rows of Prothean mannequins glaring defiantly into space with their geometric weapons to observing life sized glaring maroon Prothean jet-fighters models hanging on the ceiling, its easy to forget the long journey that brought such an exhibit to fruition.

The Systems Alliance had numerous fields of study that it engaged in during the first age of expansion. From giving funding to Belters expanding in unstable asteroid regions to the addition of Substrate Green on public Alliance ships, the supranational organization did everything it could to advance humanity. But that did not mean the road was smooth all the time; their were potholes and bumps with the most frustrating enigma by far being the Prothean artifacts on Mars.

A modern Rosetta stone for an advance age.

The news of the vault brought Mars to the forefront of all media channels in Earth and was largely responsible for the formation of the Systems Alliance. Everyone demanded answers and wanted explanations fast. After martian security closed the area off, it was the elite UN peace corp sixth battalion that had the honor of being the first humans to enter the vault. The first pictures taken of the insides of the vault are now very well known with the original prints now in The NASA Historical Museum back on Earth.

After the initial shock of discovery wore off, the then brand new Alliance formed the Prothean Intelligence Bureau (PIB) for the sole purpose of studying and categorizing all Intel on the vault. The general mood mankind felt was one of extreme optimism - the wonders the vault contained would instantly transform the species overnight – reality quickly put a stop to such notions. Pivotal objects within proved to be far above anything humanity could accurately reverse engineer. To add insult to injury, the Protheans knew how to make their actions last - carbon-14 dating showed the artifacts were at least 50,130 years old.

After decades and countless experiments, most of the relics stored in the vault was still unknown and untranslatable. While large quantities of data was collected, very little useful information ever gave themselves up to probing scientists.

The only comfort in the situation was that it appeared that the Protheans wanted humanity to find the vault. With no security measures installed and with a data signal constantly beeping outside for anyone with receivers tuned to the right frequency, that much was obvious. The vault consisted of a series of rooms and stairways, all glowing a soft yellow iridescence, lights pointing as markers to all the sights they wanted man to witness.

The Protheans were challenging humanity to advance enough to understand what they left behind.

That was a challenge mankind firmly accepted.

There were seven distinct items of interest within the vault with the public knowing of only four of them – three were separated by the seven due to their nature and age – scanning suggested that they were placed in the vault at a later date compared to the well-known four.

Ask anyone in Alliance space what the "four" items in the vault are and they will tell you in a heartbeat all of them in alphabetical order. The largest was what appeared to be a Prothean aircraft fighter with room for two pilots (long since taken apart by military scientists). The drab gunmetal ship, with its hard angles and uncompromising shape, had several advanced weapon systems and a mass effect dark-energy engine that acted as the starting point for what mankind knew about mass effect technology and its possible uses for industry. As an example, the space heat exhaust system for the fighter, using a unique ammonia based cooling solvent, was later copied for alliance standard fighter aircraft.

Second was the ten bolted chests filled with element zero. While other sources of element zero are now available, if a bit sparse, at the time the chests consisted of all the element zero in Alliance control. With element zero so rare in the Sol System, the chests were essential for jump-starting humanity's knowledge of the elusive blue substance.

Third was a complete Prothean armor set. It serrated red painted gold scales was plasma forged directly to thin titanium rivets interlaced with cybernetics – the remarkable aspect of the armor was that it appears to have been handmade. Small mistakes and defects were prevalent in the suit in a manner only organic limbs could make. Numerous theories to why machine aid was not used are common in Prothean interest circles.

The fourth relic, and most famous, was the Prothean time capsule. The capsule was the one object that captured the generals public interest the most as evident by the hundred of songs, dramatic retellings, and novels made based on its contents. Inside it was several objects that consists of most of what we know of Prothean culture including a bag of ceramic red marbles, silver disks, colored glass jars filled with ash (bio-analyzers are still shifting through it), the famous 'Cydonia' doll (currently resigning in the Martian National Museum of Prothean Society), and the greatest gift to xenophiles everywhere.

The famed Prothean plates.

Five titanium plates electroplated in gold revealed the enigmatic Protheans themselves; diagrams showing their gruff four-eyed appearance, their basic alphabet, the fact that they breathed molecular oxygen and even the approximate location of their homeworld.

After studying the map provided, galactic cartographers calculated that their homeworld appeared to be over eight thousand light-years from earth. The reaction among the science community was deafening.

How did they accomplish that? For what purpose did they come here? Have they interacted with us in the past?

The Alliance took advantage of the commotion to secretly acquiesce the other items not known to exist by the general public. Two of the objects steadfastly held to its secrets until AI was hired to forcibly extract useful data from them.

Article A1, code yellow and classified, was a nonfunctional Prothean particle rifle. Immediately sent to Alliance weapon research and development, the rifle was only fully understood when AI weapon consultants analyzed it after a brutal year round investigation session. The first experimental Alliance particle rifles were created and underwent testing in 2157 ADE.

Article A2, code red and double classified, was a six meter tall data obelisk. The 'rod' as bitter scientists called it was the bane of the PIB staff. After sixty years of intensive around the clock study, the obelisk remained an immobile symbol of Prothean superiority to any attempts of human tampering. Some successful procedures, little as they were, has shown the obelisk comprised of data pertaining to advanced chemical reactions, mass effect processes, and galactic star charts. After the inclusion of AI as Alliance citizens and the success of Substrate Green, an AI think tank was formed to unearth the mystery of the obelisk.

Not only did it eventually gather all the data in exactly three years (a lifetime for an AI network) but the think tank even figured out why it was so hard for humanity to collect it to begin with. Humanity lacked a biological interface that the Protheans processed – this interface was crucial for acquiring the data within the obelisk. The Protheans appeared to have had psychometric abilities relating to the exchange of data via touch.

The alliance is still organizing all the data obtained to the present day. Skin-Lobe Augments are being developed that might hopefully replicate the "Prothean sense" the elder race used.

When the obelisk was finally completely deciphered on the birthday of the vaults discovery exactly seventy years ago, the Alliance announced a public holiday to commemorate the occasion under the guise of the Alliance giving in to a petition sent by martian officials to form a national martian holiday. Months later the relay would be found.

Included in the deepest area of the vault was a palladium stature of a grotesque squid-like entity on top of a display of Prothean skulls. The skulls were real and laid out in a semicircle around the 'shrine.'

Article A3 is an Alliance Code-Black triple-classified secret.

][

"My fellow citizens, its with cautious trepidation that I verify the rumors you no doubt have heard all over the Solnet. Yes, the moon of Charon is in fact no moon at all but the the location of a ancient monolith of grand and unknowable purpose. Rest assure that the Alliance will not rest until this mystery is solved and dealt with._" _**- Alliance Senator Member William Bolitho, of the dominant Star Sight Party, in his speech 'Reminders of our Nonexistent Isolation' following the discovery of the Charon Relay.**

][

The answer of how the Protheans visited the Sol system was finally answered in the midst of the biomechanical movement in 2149 ADE. A tracking AI looking for lost soldiers on the frozen plutoniun landscape detected a carefully hidden data signal emitting from the close orbiting moon of Charon – nearly identical to the obelisk on Mars. Reconnaissance drones landed on the satellite and started drilling with close Alliance supervision. Days later, a two-armed alien structure was found amongst the ice.

The Alliance called in every available Navy vessel it contained to quarantine the entire space perimeter. All military personnel on Pluto was grounded indefinitely and sworn to secrecy. Communication blackouts and EMP drones ensured the site stayed an electronic dead-zone to all unauthorized visitors. Mateus Silva and other scientists involved on the decryption of the Prothean ruins were brought in and reassigned to studying the "monolith" as it was being now called. With high levels of gamma radiation and element zero emissions radiating out of the "inactive" object, nerves were strained as multiple contingency plans being made to counter all the horrifying scenarios the monolith might present.

It did not take long to see that the object was capable of handling unfathomable amounts of stress with the strongest hybrid-plasma cutters alone being able to make a dent on the super-dense metal. With so much strength, researchers deduced it was meant to undertake a process that might not be fully understandable by mankind at the moment – one involving the ever rare element zero.

Wild theories included the object being a immense canon meant to destroy massive starships or a bomb designed to vaporize entire systems.

As more and more of 'Charon' was mined out and the monolith becoming more revealed by the day, Alliance high command ordered an emergency meeting of the defense committee and the Senate to formally announce the presence of the monolith to all citizens of the Sol system.

The Alliance sent William Bolitho, head of Alliance-public relations, to come on stage before the senate to reveal all available information that was given to him on the superstructure. With the biomechanical movement in full swing, the masses took the news of the monolith with exited fever – believing it to be a tool of enlightenment left by the Protheans. With most ice around the monolith finally removed, the shape of the structure appeared everywhere in the media. T-shirts, hats, screen-savers, and other memorabilia was printed with the monolith and sold to billions of eager buyers and collectors.

Other parties were not so pleased. While some celebrated, others were less enthusiastic on the idea of a ancient alien structure just floating all these years under our noses. Who built it and why? Was it the Protheans or another race? All age-determining processes done on the monolith turned up blank. Most of the facility was still walled off to encroaching scientist who faced heavy resistance. Clearly whoever built it did not want it explored. Shares declined across the stock market as the population at large wondered what was going to happen next.

The Alliance military was also less then impressed. With their navy already so small, they barely had the logistics necessary to handle this kind of situation. Fortunately, the alliance had the assistance of non-human agents.

An AI were called for aid. Professional aid.

The first AI fully dedicated to studying Prothean technology, JUNO-SIGHT, a member of the successful martian think tank, was brought in three months after discovery to analyze all data and formulate possible functions for the machine.

When element zero in super-condensed fluid form mixed with liquid hydrogen was discovered in containment units towards the back of the structure, JUNO fitted that piece of the puzzle with all other data and came to the correct conclusion.

It was a stasis-mass accelerator of gigantic proportions – both in size and sheer power. In laymen terms, a warp-gate.

Skeptical of such an claim, JUNO-CHARON was ordered to see if it could be activated. In mere hours, the gyroscope like wheels of the base started revolving and mass effect emissions spiked dramatically.

The relay was now active. Startled personnel was ordered to immediately evacuate the area. After some semblance of calm was reached, the alliance asked how she did it. JUNO merely replied that it was simple. Too simple. The codes offered to the relay receiver was insultingly basic. Whoever built the structure clearly wanted it used by any species who happened to discover it but not to understand how it worked.

The Alliance upper echelon was reminded of Article A3.

While humanity has attempted to construct warp-gates before, the concept was not understood well enough for useful implementation. Now here was one right here almost literally begging to be used.

As far as the Alliance was concerned, there was only one possible option.

After a large vote and the presidents backing, the decision is made to use the relay only after reliable methods of shutting it down are known in case of a worst case scenario of an invading army trying to find the human home system. After consideration, its decided that until its better understood where it takes us, it will be deactivated and carefully dismantled until further notice. When mankind can put this thing back together and make it work will Alliance be ready to comfortably use it.

However, the communication hub on top is also voted to stay operational with a permanent team on standby to check if the relay has a sister. If so, they could secretly observe any transmissions received from the other side, wherever it is.

The Alliance was not going to go into this blind. Even if the inner workings of the relay may be beyond them for now, a better military would be made before they start entering other systems.

Deceleration pad junctions were already being placed to halt any ship entering the Sol system from the relay. An arms race it started.

Mankind will not let another race dictate its actions. Even an nonexistent one leaving its toys behind.

Next time on Paragon Reinterpretations...

"The Alliance Battle-medic is outfitted with the latest in integrated diagnostic technology, most of which revolves around maintaining the condition and efficiency of squad mates and their equipment. With full drone and nano-omni support this military warrior becomes a force multiplier, greatly improving the overall effectiveness of the unit. When deployed, a Battle-medic fills a vital tactical role in small unit operations and full-scale warfare, providing both medical and mechanical support." - **Tactical Unlimited brochure for Alliance War council associates during the Relay induced Arms race of 2152 ADE.**

][

**Author Notes:**

I would like to clarify certain element of the story. First, I will try my darnedest not to make humanity "overpowered" in this fic. I do not want you guys to panic and think humanity will easily destroy the reapers in the story to come because they won't. At the same time however I always detested how humanity never attempted to comprehend or replicate their own Relay so for better or worse my humanity will not blindly accept "gifts" that falls from their collective lap.

If mankind has to use it, it would do under its own terms. Which means knowing to to turn the damn thing off.

Being paragon does not mean being nice all the time. While cooperation and peace is always sought out, being a true paragon sometimes means putting your foot down and making a stand for whats right; even if you get criticism from your allies. In this very cynical galaxy, humanity has a lot of work to do.

My number one intention is to make a retelling of the Mass Effect games with a mostly paragon humanity instead of the neutral mankind of canon. However, I will flavor the story with how I think humanity will develop in reality. That's why my humanity is so cyborg-happy and that's also why humanity is suspicious of the Mass relay because come on, wouldn't you guys be?

Some of you probably realized that I also took some liberties with the martian ruins. To me, this is a more realistic action on the Prothean side of things. Don't worry, humanity will not go around busting heads with high-tech Prothean technology – the Hanar can still kick humanity's ass on that department – however, you can consider it canon that only humanity actually knows what the Protheans look like. How that will affect the Systems Alliance relationship with the Illuminated Primacy is anyone's guess (excepts mine obviously :D)

Also, just to excite you guys, next chapter is planned to have First contact and some human canon characters making their first appearance. While its not the chapter question, feel free to predict who will make an appearance (hint: Shepard will not appear just yet.)

Again, thanks so much for all the reviews you guys have given me! Seeing the comment list first thing in the morning when I check my account always make me chirpy for the whole day! I read and study all your suggestions very carefully so please don't think that I'm ignoring your impute because I'm not.

For those of you who left questions, I'm planning on answering them at some point, so please don't feel ignored or think that I'm upset.

As a side note, I'm so glad the people who has reviewed thus far have and I like how your ideas for Alliance relations with the council races are pretty much exactly as I envisioned in my head. Great minds think alike heh?

Question below and as always, you opinion will be read and seriously considered – I'm not arrogant enough to think I can handle such a project without input.

**Question Number Three:** Lets pretend you're a human captain of a Alliance security starship who is part of a vanguard fleet expedition to an unknown system. Now, lets also pretend you see a badly damaged civilian alien ship chased by what looks like pirate vessels. What do you, a young paragon driven captain, do in this situation? Also, as another spoiler, your a young Steven Hackett.

The answer seems obvious, but any tiny details you would like to add will be considered whether its funny, interesting, or something small I should remember to make things make sense. I don't claim to be an expert on mass effect lore so even though this is an AU, please inform me of anything the Wiki might miss like Hackett's favorite food or some basic defenses a Batarian/Krogan pirate ship would have that I'm not aware off.


	4. Chapter 3 – Exploration and Impressions

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

][

Paragon Reinterpretations

][

Chapter 3 – Exploration and First Impressions

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"The Alliance Battle-medic is outfitted with the latest in integrated diagnostic technology, most of which revolves around maintaining the condition and efficiency of squad mates and their equipment. With full drone and nano-omni support this military warrior becomes a force multiplier, greatly improving the overall effectiveness of the unit. When deployed, a battle-medic fills a vital tactical role in small unit operations and full-scale warfare, providing both medical and mechanical support." - **Tactical Unlimited brochure for Alliance War council associates during the Relay induced Arms race of 2152 ADE.**

][

The Systems Alliance, while moderately popular amongst its population, never had much military authority to the displeasure of some of its more veteran members. The reason for this was primarily due to lack of need. Earth, the colonies, and the stations all had their own internal security forces which were fairly competent and adopted to work within its population and unique habitat.

Guild security operatives are known experts at zero gravity hand-to-hand combat and use minimal recoil Folding Energy Pulse (FEP) SMG's and pistols in emergency situations. For more mundane purposes, they are equipped with Buzzpulse Taser-guns and air-powered Tranquilizer Rifles using hypodermic needles coated most commonly in Sleep-Blink-Dyne, a potent mix of different psychoactive drugs and anesthetics such as diazepam, phencyclidine, ketamine and morphine; Exclusively produced by Sol-Sparta-03, the Alliances biggest producer of station security weaponry.

G-sec mostly prefer gravity and inertial augments to move around faster and also use guild invented bio-scan vision prosthesis to immediately identity tissue in crime scenes.

Alliance mandate colonies are more adapted for heavy AI assistance. Law enforcement guard-bots and camera drones are routine with the Lunar mandate having the largest AI security defense funding of all alliance territories. The Lunar mandate was also the site of the first successful use of infiltration androids clothed in artificial human skin when a prototype busted an illegal red sand ring in the inner city of the Vallis Boulevard Arcology site-2 projects.

In terms of sheer reputation, the most battle hardened law enforcement agents were the Earth based peacekeeper. With the vast mega-metropolis's covering the planet and billions of people to look over, the alliance peacekeeper now iconic status in the Attican Traverse was forged in the brutal conditions of its upbringing. Use the most augmentations with some more machine then organic. From fighting vicious cyber crime syndicates to taking down genocidal terrorist organizations, peacekeepers are the last and most hardy defense of democracy and stability in Alliance space, second only to the mythic members of the N7 program.

The Alliance would recruit from all three habitats for the formation of its first official army.

The Alliance itself, prior to the discovery of the relay, had a grand total of fourteen ships, of which only six being the new Substrate Green enhanced third generation; the rest being the more block-like gray second generation. All small frigates, they were used mostly to escort high priority VIP's and to conduct long range scanning of the Bohr cloud surrounding the Sol system. Crime in open space was and still is relatively rare due to its sheer size and the prevalence of armed passengers in commercial vessels. Building a navy more substantial then that was criticized as wasted expenditure by the population at large and the economic council. With mankind's history of violet warfare, no one wanted reminders to spoil the decidedly long period of relative peace that started after the age of expansion.

The fourteen vessels combined only barely managed to cover the circumference of the relay zone. With the possibility of new systems to colonize, a considerable amount of meetings were made with the topic of reshuffling resources towards armed forces growth. Approval was granted.

With the relay issue at hand, the Alliance finally got the backing it needed to build a full, integrated Naval powerhouse. A large-scale propaganda and advertisement campaign was started to increase recruitment and establish permanent military infrastructure for the navy. Two "blocky shipyards" were brought into Pluto's orbit and permanently assigned for military vessel construction and maintenance. A new AI ran defense department was established for new weapon designs using nanotechnology and tech from the recently translated Prothean obelisk.

The approach was to formulate a expedition armada to spearhead mankind's entrance into the new system. Three distinct groups were made; A vanguard fleet consisting of forty warships would go first after initial probes gave all clear. When area is secure, an observation fleet made up of science vessels would collect data. Then the sower commercial fleet made up of Alliance mandate colony ships, mining prospector barges, and Guild station constructor vessels would come last and install outposts for ship and human upkeep. If everything went well, mankind would establish its first foothold over its new sovereignty.

The military was in luck. Years after the Bill of Equal Rights, AI production and innovation now made a significant portion of Alliance hardware. With so many advances provided by synthetic engineering communities, the Alliance brass looked forward to the formation of the new, high tech fleet to introduce humanity to the galaxy beyond their home system.

Alliance Naval command knew it could not implement some of its more grandiose plans at the moment due to time and resource restraints. As much as they wanted it, heavy gun dreadnaughts and fighter carriers were out; they were far too resource intensive to build and maintain. The Alliance choose to be realistic and use smart tactics in case of any confrontation with an alien power.

Using what was available, all new ships would be designed with Substrate green enhanced hulls to lower energy requirements while keeping Helium-3 backup generators in case of emergency or lack of light. All individual ships would have a permanent ship-wide AI to assist in combat and to give diagnostic data to the ships pilot and navigating officers. All vessels will also be networked together via Fleet AI to better harmonize battle formations, form attack coordinations, and distribute repair microbot swarms to damaged ships. Data ports will be installed to allow direct neural "data diving" from crewmen to ship and Fleet AI for immediate status reports.

Three ships types – five classes - forty total warships were mass produced in the Five year span between relay deactivation and reactivation. While now outpaced by newer models, these ships were the pinnacle of Alliance technology and the staple of early human galactic presence in the galaxy. The navy vessel types at the time were smaller, maneuverable ships that could be constructed at a fast pace with minimal cost while maintaining maximum safety for its crew.

The first order of business was the production of more of the faithful third generation Substrate green frigates that were currently outpacing all other ships in the navy. The Alliance had two classes of the Substrate supported frigates: the SSV Walrus "fat porpoise" and the effective but costly SSV Starfish or "creeper."

The teal colored, curved elongated 'cone' shape and flipper like dark green extensions on either of its side led to the class name the Walrus received. Its nickname of "fat porpoise" was due its below average speeds and decreased adaptation in combat situation. Its main advantage on the other hand outweighed the costs. The Walrus is a high-tech vessel, specialized for AI assisted electronic warfare. It's also particularly valued in fleet warfare due to its optimization for sensor dampening technology. As long has it has friendlies guarding it, a Walrus can reek havoc on enemy ship organization. While not always held at such high regard, the three original Walruses in the navy changed peoples perceptions when they single handily brought a criminal guild station to its knees with group AI hacking attacks and EMP blasts.

The current three Walruses would be retrofitted with upgrades and given eleven new two hundred crewed sisters.

The SSV frigate class Starfish, with its admittedly strange five black and jade limb-like Drone launchers forming a crown on the back of the ship, does indeed invoke the image of the marine echinoderm. The Starfish was designed for front-line combat and spearheading Alliance military operations. Its speed and surprising strength made it excellent for skirmishing duties. Starfish-class ships are networked to move together in groups and thus can quickly and effectively gang up on ships many times their size and overwhelm them. To save on mass, drones holds were build into the "arms" themselves, thus freeing the frigate to have heavier armor without sacrificing on speed.

Despite its "creeper" status, the Starfish is an Alliance favorite and would later prove its worth time and time again during the early stages of the Border War half a decade later.

Building small frigates were one thing, but the first assault destroyers were giving much more firepower and thus were more complicated to operate and needed higher crew counts – only ten total were built for the expedition fleet. Five of the following two classes were constructed: The SSD Tunicate "squirter" and the SSD Beluga "fatboy."

Approximately in the shape of a large lying cross covered in interlacing ring decks, the Tunicate is a more traditional appearing warship stained green and seemingly covered in back circles. Specialized as a destroyer-class drone carrier, the Tunicate carries less in the way of firepower than most other Alliance warships. With a fully stocked complement of drones and a skilled crew, however, mistaking the ship as helpless is a foolhardy decision. When attacking, thousand of drones burst forth out of the many portholes covering the ship and can ravage enemy vessels like piranhas on a carcass.

With top of the line AI assisted aiming and network modules throughout the ship, the SSD Tunicate was designed more for Alliance synthetic crew-members then human ones in mind.

The SSD Beluga is a far more traditional destroyer in terms of design and battle doctrine. Eight hybrid blaster-railgun turrets and six missle bays accommodating forty two anti-matter warheads line the ships in rows for both long and short distance ship-to-ship combat. Colossal reflector barrier generators installed emit micro-pulse waves that deflect incoming high speed projectiles. While later replaced by the now standard nano-enhanced kinetic barriers, the pulse defense was more then adequate for early human expansion in the Attican Traverse.

The last and most time consuming project for the Alliance was the assembly of the first ever SSC Rhincodon Logistical Cruiser. Called the "pelt feeder" by marines, this large cruiser was designed specifically as an armor augmenter that provides added defensive muscle to fighters on the front lines. With thick hulls covered in Poly-Carbon plating alongside Substrate Green and Autocannon artillery capable of firing Tungsten Sabot armor piecing rounds, the "pelt feeder" was meant to absorb and dish out severe amounts of damage.

The first Rhincodon class cruiser was christened and launched from the Philadelphia Charon Shipyard on 2152 ADE.

The SSV Rhincodon class _Omaha_ would have the honor of being the armada flagship while its sister was still being made back in port to provide a possible replacement. A server room in the ship would contain EDI, the fleet AI and chief adviser for the entire expedition.

At the insistence of numerous political groups, League of Unity diplomatic starships will enter with the Observation fleet to help in communicating and assisting with any first contact situation that might arise. Because of the multiple forms of life on earth, several different forms of communication channels were available on league ships including bioluminescence, sign language, digital code, and supposedly psionic agents. As a side note, Psychic abilities have not been proven as of the writing of this historical document.

All ships in the fleet carried Gift packages in their cargo bay to help facilitate positive relations in the event of first contact with another race. This would be proved later on to be a prudent decision.

][

"Progress In Diversity, No Species Is Inferior, All Voices Are Equal." - **official motto of Systems Alliance formed in the formation and first observance of Alliance National Pride Day.**

][

Suffice to say, the rebuilding of the relay was an adventure of its own. Entire volumes constituting of news articles, autobiographies, and journal entries were written during the long and hectic five years. While the armada was being created almost next door on the other side of Pluto, scientists, both human and synthetic, worked continuously to understand and recondition the relay to working order.

Data from the Prothean obelisk turned the tasks difficultly from 'impossible' to 'manageable.'

In the forefront of the rebuilding was Jon Grissom, communications expert and senior admiral for the Alliance provincial navy. As chief manger of the rebuilding process, Grissom was the overarching leader that helped ensure the entire project proceeded at a brisk pace while fixing any issues that came up. Realizing that traditional communication drones would not have the strength to reliably transmit messages back, he also played an essential role for the development of experimental quantum entanglement probes to be used to test conditions beyond relay before humans made the trip.

Copious phrases used today as labels for mass relay related phenomena were penned during the rebuilding phase such as "Saddlers spike", "Evans dive", and "Initiates pulse wave".

The only major incident during the project was a small decompression explosion in one of the data storage arrays surrounding the Charon relay work-site. While no one was seriously hurt, its believed to have been a deliberate theft on the hands of an outside party. A dataport was used with two terabytes of data stolen. The only evidence found was a data notepad with a picture of a black three-headed dog in a yellow background placed over a copy of the Star Sight party manifesto book "The Collective Reach of Galactic Life."

In 2154 ADE, the relay was officially rebuilt. While an arduous undertaking, several discoveries were made and the relay was finally ready to be used. With new extensions added to the relay in the area of nano modulators and a AI ran mission control, the Alliance had far more control over the functions of the "free" warp-gate compared to its original state.

The Alliance army count was two hundred thousand marines and five hundred thousand support drones. A tiny fraction of the complete Alliance population but better then nothing. While the drones would assist soldiers and help destroy enemy ship defenses, they requested not to be placed in direct combat roles to avoid negative cultural connotations.

The first quantum entanglement probe was sent to the Arcturus system 36.7 light years away. An hour later, it transmitted an all clear message.

A second probe was sent with equal results. Expedition was go.

With billions watching this high stakes extravaganza, the new vanguard fleet went first.

SSV Rhincodon class Omaha entered the relay and warped to the new system. After polarizing the view screens to account for the excessive light emitting from the systems namesakes, all clears were sent out. As the rest of the vanguard fleet moved in, guns drawn, they assumed a defensive formation all around the sister relay. The fleet released a myriad of long-range sensory drones to scout the entire system for any signs of intelligent life. The results were received.

None whatsoever. The system was anticlimactically barren.

With Alliance military command relaxing, the observation and league fleet entered next. Large science vessels with outward sensors loose around its hull taking gas samples and receiving probe data were warped in alongside streamlined white and lime league ships already sending out short range radio signals sequenced in packets of prime numbers to attract the attention of any life on the gas planets revolving around the red giant star the first probes missed. After a week, the sower fleet was finally allowed admittance.

It took two days for the complete commercial fleet to finally cross the relay due to its sheer numbers.

Forty warships in vanguard fleet, forty ships in the observation and League fleet, and one hundred and twenty ships in the commercial fleet.

Money does truly make the galaxy go round.

Arcturus-Outpost-01 was completed in only four weeks. It was silver during the first years of it life since the Substrate Green cyber-spores were yet to be implanted on the stations hull.

Inside it, all the main representatives of the combined two hundred ships celebrated the occasion with the formation of a new alliance holiday to commemorate the successful passing of the Expedition Armada. During the first observance of Alliance National Pride Day, a copy of The Alliance Sovereignty Act was read to a large audience and then framed for all inhabitants in the station to witness. The assembly officially claimed Arcturus space as rightful Alliance territory with representatives signing in words and barcode for synthetic readers.

The black and green flag of the Alliance was symbolically raised. A large obsidian and emerald globe was placed in the central pavilion of the station for any future visitors to see.

Scouting ships from the three fleets scattered in all directions to find different objectives. Alcyoneus rich mineral reserves was discovered and quickly claimed by mandate Belters while Guild ships built helium-3 refueling stations on the gas giants of Themis and Eirene. Synthetics claimed the ice world of Eunomia for their own headquarters and to build a series of satellites to help coordinate space-born data under the guidance of EDI.

Another relay was found on 2156 ADE by a Alliance guild scout ship. And then another was discovered seven months later. Following standard Alliance protocol all relays found were decommissioned and dismantled. Military outposts were built and then placed near discovered relays to monitor it in case of attempted invasion by a outside party. Two weeks later a third one was found. It was starting to become clear what a headache this might become for Alliance officials. The sentiment at the time could be summarized by the following statement:

"Apparently Arcturus system is a relay nexus site. Which means that at any moment a rampaging army could come out from a missed corner and threaten the entire system. Lovely. "

To help protect so much new domain, more military ships were ordered to be built to guard the system and to protect civilians now pouring into the new stations and colonies being built. The Alliance was already preparing to investigate and launch probes to test out other relays and check their validity on becoming new territory offshoots.

On 2157 ADE, an observation station detected a unidentified space vehicle coming out of the scheduled for disassembly 314 relay and calls a nearby small group of Alliance frigates to intercept it.

Next time on Paragon Reinterpretations...

][

_Sweat dropped down Viras face as she pointed her pistol at the boarder of the ship, her hands quivering the entire time. First those bastard Batarians and now this? Aliens? And of course her biotics just had to be overloaded this very moment. "Just how shitty can my luck get?" she whispered to herself as the intimidating armored figure in front of her slowly took out its glowing rifle from its magnetic lock on its back._

"_Stay back! I don't care if you don't understand me, I'm armed!" She yelled as panic overcame her. The gun in her hands were now shaking violently._

_The thickly armored warrior stopped momentarily while looking at her the entire time through his green visor, before placing the rifle on the floor and kicking it aside. The Asari navigator stared in open confusion. Taking another step forward the figure slowly started removing the armor reinforcement around his neck. What was it doing? She wondered in mystified silence._

_Soft whistles were made as pressurized air was released. The figure wiggled the helmet and finally removed the retractable protection from his head. Viras audibly gasped in shock at the warm smile the figure gave her._

"_Easy there, you're safe now. My name is David Anderson and I'm here to protect you."_

][

**Author Notes:**

...And no first contact. Sorry everyone, but this felt like a better place to stop then what I originally planned. Seeing as the next chapter will probably be in a more traditional fanfic format, I decided to work up to that very last minute of first contact, and then change styles. Please wish me luck because my novel writing skills might be a little rusty.

Holy sardines batman twenty plus reviews for one chapter?! I'm in cloud nine right now! You guys are the greatest and I love all the suggestions I received. Have no fear, I'm reviewing your comments as I type this. In fact, I changed some parameter of the scenario I gave you last chapter due to the very helpful critique you dudes gave me. Lets makes things slightly easier on poor Hackett shall we?

Cheers mates :P

As usual please answer the question in the comments in all honesty.

**Question Number three:** Since its so obvious that I'm going to touch on this later on, I might as well bring this up now. How will paragon Alliance view the whole Geth/Quarian issue?

In my original draft, the Alliance would form warm relations with the Flotilla and encourage young pilgrims to go to alliance space due to a large demand for competent mechanics/engineers and because duh of course paragon humanity would help the Quarians. But then I remembered the synthetics living in the Alliance and I took pause.

Wouldn't they be pissed? Especially at how the Quarians reacted to rising Geth intelligence compared to their own creators? And after years of humans getting used to treating AI as just other people, wouldn't they react somewhat badly to Quarian induced machine slavery?

To Alliance synthetics, the Geth seems like renegade mirrors of themselves. So they probably would not welcome the Geth with open arms either.

What's your take? Please feel free to disagree with anything I just said. I already have some long term plans for how the Geth will affect this universe in my version of Mass Effect One but as usual, your ideas and thoughts will be considered.


	5. Chapter 4 - First Contact Part one

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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Chapter 4 – First Contact Part One

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"So shines a good deed in a weary world." - **William Shakespeare.**

][

_Fuigan Tea Resort, Yancheng National Forest_

_February 23, 2157 ADE_

_05:28 hours_

The chilled winds gently whistled through Micheal's hair as he sipped his green tea while sitting on the wooden roof of the weathered pagoda. The setting winter sun created a beautiful red-orange backdrop in the distant horizon which added greatly to the mood. His white oriental silken robe, already laden with a small layer of snow, sagged slightly on the mans lanky figure. The dull buzzing of cicadas could be heard clearly from the resting forest treetops. The beautiful wintery white and mellow brown bamboo filled Chinese landscape before his eyes invigorated him almost as well as the tea. If only moments like these could never end.

After the week long ordeal his mind went though, he deserved this.

Micheal was an natural explorer. He has traveled all over the world, constantly looking for new sights to journey to and observe. From the high Alps to the blazing Sahara to the Great Barrier Reef, he has seen it all. However, he had to admit that this resort was pretty high on his 'best of list' for its downright relaxing ambiance. He hasn't felt this rested in years. Unfortunately with his career evolving the way it was, he was having less time then he would like to devote to his passion.

Taking one last sip, he placed the clay cup down on the snow-covered shingles beside him and turned to face the figure sitting in the lotus position next to him. The woman, dressed in somewhat loosely black yoga robes, was working furiously with a datapad, her tongue pinching out of the corner of her mouth. With her wild black hair haphazardly covering her face, she looked like a hurricane hit her.

She did always care more about her duties then her appearance as exemplified by the woman barely even noticed the frost around her. Her quiet demeanor balanced nicely with his more fidgety nature. If it wasn't for her supporting presence in his life, Micheal was pretty sure he would have lost his sanity ages ago.

Oh how he loved her. Sometimes he was so glad he married her before someone else whisked her away. If only she could forget about work for just a minute...

Smiling mischievously, he gathered up some snow around him and threw it towards her head. When it was only inches from striking her face, it prematurely transformed into a puff of sparkling, digital bits.

He hated it when reality broke his immersion. And this new simulation was so well made compared to he last one they entered. Unlike that badly coded ski resort, this new Asian map was actually fooling him for a while, even if only at a subconscious level.

She turned to him with a victorious smirk. "Nice try dear," she goaded happily while sticking her tongue out at him. Her beautiful, organic blue eyes blinked happily at him. Since she removed her real eyes years ago, this was the only time he could see them as they once were.

He frowned in a very unconvincing manner as he flopped down on the snow, seemingly ignoring the extreme cold. He stared up at the darkening sky above. "You know my shift will start soon. We don't have much time left."

She sighed as she placed her datapad next to her and laid besides him. His wife looked equally distressed. "Honey, you know how demanding my job can be. It's a miracle you finally finished your labor neural schooling at the same time as my leave." She played with his robes for a bit. "I might be able to convince the captain to give me more time off. We can meet again two days from now, assuming of course no one needs immediate surgery in the Dauntless."

The explorer contemplated this before shaking his head.

"No, its alright. These data packets are just a killer on my skull. And where I'm at, I need a change in scenery. I don't want you to get in trouble with you superiors." He smiled tiredly at her.

Her eyes lit up as she turned to him with a sultry glaze. "If you want, we could take another dip in the hot springs. Seeing as I'm administrator this time, I could upload some new lingerie on my avatar. You know, the laced ones you like~" She winked roguishly. He turned to her, his mood already rising with the thought until he looked up and groaned in annoyance. Surprised, afraid that she was loosing her touch, she also looked up and promptly frowned herself.

The unmistakable sight of EDI hovered a few feet from them. Her blue 'eye' surveyed the young couple as they tightened the robes they were wearing. "Am I interrupting?" the AI commented with an almost sly disposition.

"Nothing you haven't already seen before you omnipresent wench." Micheal replied grumpily. EDI ignored the watchman. This was not the first time she dealt with him. With his job, he worked more with AI's then his fellow humans and it understandably stressed him out.

"Chief Medical Officer Sharron Moreau. Communication Watchman Micheal Moreau. Your two hour military leave will be over in exactly one minute. Please prepare for Simulation Disconnection."

A pause.

"Please forgive me for being the bearer of bad news. I know how long you two have looked forward to this." The blue data sphere said, sounding sincerely regretful.

The medical officer decided to show the Fleet AI some mercy. She was better at dealing with AI's then her husband as ironic as it sounds.

"That's okay EDI. You're just doing your job. Me and my incredibly patient and understanding husband," Micheal snorted loudly. "Will of course go back to our regular duties. I'm disengaging as we speak." She snapped her fingers and interfaces digitized in front of her as she started typing commands. EDI 'looked' grateful for her compliance as she logged out and faded in glowing data sputters.

Micheal stood up and softly hugged Sharron from behind with a forlorn expression on his face. She slowed her typing and turned her head around to look at him with fond eyes.

"I Love you. Who knows, we might meet each other in real life next time."

He looked at her with downcast eyes, "with our schedules? We'll see." They hugged properly as she typed the last command.

The wind stopped, the falling snow froze midair, and all sound ceased.

The couple embraced one another as the entire landscape around them was quickly became engulfed in a fast approaching wall of shifting raw code.

Everything became white.

_var_4523#_dis_command_accepted_

_Sol_Earth_Asia_Yancheng_Dusk_Ver4.5_vir. Discontinued _

_Individual_467D var named "Dr. Sharon Moreau" disconnected_

_Individual_823L var named "Com. Micheal Moreau" disconnected_

Micheal Moreau woke up.

][

_Arcturus-Watchguard-02-314 Observation Station_

_Vicinity of Relay 314 (awaiting disassembly), Arcturus System sector 2_

_February 23, 2157 ADE_

_05:30 hours_

Micheal Moreau was awake.

The holographic timer inside sleeping pod 4D started beeping at 05:30 hours. The watchman tiredly snarled in irritation as he curled his body in the nylon sleeping pouch. He could already hear the soft hum of lights turning on outside the pod hatch. The various whizzes of electronics assaulted his sensitive ears. A sudden whirling of computer fans and the subtle smell of ozone told him all he needed to know.

Even though Moreau's eyes were still closed, he could practically see _its_ avatar floating and silently tapping its nonexistent foot.

A beetle-like Attendant microbot, using tiny air propulsion vents, started tickling Moreau's nose. Okay, that was immature. Speakers next to him self-activated as evident by the piercing red lights and that dreaded wake-up call.

"Mike, I know you don't like it, but your shift is up. If you persist in pretending to be asleep, I will materialize my avatar next to your head and start singing opera. You know how much I enjoy Carmen." A heavily synthesized male voice announced in a condescending and purposely annoying tone.

The Communication officer will for the life of him never understand why FARSIGHT-02 choose such an abrasive tone for a personality matrix. Maybe he just liked riling up organics?

"That will not be necessary FAR, I getting up now." he growled as he reached for the pouches zipper. Evidently the AI was not done as it continued. "Yes, like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Absolutely delightful. Shall I take pictures?"

"Piss of FAR. I'll meet later in the deck." Micheal almost snarled out after his head finally emerged from the pouch. The AI smirked and dematerialized in a cloud of ionized vapor.

Finally unstrapping the last Velcro strip, Micheal started to float freely in the pod.

It bears repeating that the officer detested wake-up calls.

Quietly groaning, he turned over in his sleeping pod to gingerly remove the USB memory drive from his cranial dataport. With the advent of direct knowledge implantation via MINDFLOOD implants, it was becoming apparent that soon it would be mandatory for all members of the armed forces to regularly update their individual awareness of machinery and event protocol using data packets stored via MINDFLOOD memory drives. The benefits were unmistakable: A pilot under a strict routine of uploading memory drives such as High Speed Maneuvering, Control Drive Operations, and Basic Space Navigation will perform far better in tests against regularly trained pilots within the same time period.

Of course, the benefits came with some downsides. The MINDFLOOD required surgeries were much more risky compared to more mundane neural augments such as the adrenaline booster implant or the common subcervical Analyzing suite that almost all members of police and military forces used. With reports of possible allergic reactions, the push to give all military workers the upgrade was still on a voluntary basis. And of course there was the obvious fact that its impossible to learn skill from a memory drive. MINDFLOOD can teach you how to use a gun without seeing one, but you will still need practice to hit anything twenty meters away with it.

However, the practice time was much shorter. Hence, its extreme potential.

Micheal Moreau was too much of a daredevil to resist. With his ambition of climbing the leadership ladder, this was just the edge he needed. The officer himself already had a sizable library of Educational memory drives he stored on the other side of his resting pod to help him rise up the ranks faster. Most the drives were arranged into 'Tiers' with some packets taking longer to upload then others due to increased difficulty and certain skill requirements. At the moment, Micheal was still working on Managerial Station Specialist IV. He finished all seven of the Labor Connections I-VII memory drive collection just last week which was why he was celebrating with the missus.

While it was a pain to convince her to take the necessary augments, his darling later admitted that the trips they want on together made up for the headaches she sometimes got. While virtual reality has been present for almost a decade, it has only recently been adopted for streaming over Solnet comm lines. This innovation greatly expanded the industry and it is now the fastest growing entertainment venue in Alliance history - even with all the paperwork involved.

There was no way the Alliance would let tech like exists without strict supervision.

From engaging in mock battles to allowing business meetings with members planets away, the possible uses for the technology was endless. It was too bad the tech was not made yet to allow streaming using quantum entanglement over the relay comm station so that Micheal could talk to his parents in Paris, but that possibility would be reality in a matter of time.

While the military originally used it solely for training, it eventually relinquished to demands and allowed officials its use to engage in long range connections with their loved ones. Luckily, him and Sharon were both doing tours in Arcturus system. He hasn't visited his wife for eight months in reality but with EDI's coordination, they have been going on 'outings' together since November.

Even if the AI was always so punctual with the time limits.

Typing the code to Unlock the hatch, the Watchman grabbed one of the hand-bars lining the ceiling, walls, and floors of the dorm halls. He already consciously turned off his Retinal real-time Heads-Up-Display (HUD) so that he could float to the bathroom without damn message boxes telling him his current objectives. He knew the way to the bathroom and did not need fifty arrows pointing the way.

][

_Arcturus-Watchguard-02-314 Observation Station_

_Vicinity of Relay 314 (awaiting disassembly), Arcturus System sector 2_

_February 23, 2157 ADE_

_05:48 hours_

Lieutenant Commander Ryan Sarchenko, commanding officer of Arcturus-Watchguard-02-314 Observation Station and high ranking officer of the Guild Advanced Combat Division, stared somberly at the data plots surrounding the large green holographic image of Relay 314 that slowly revolved around the central point of the command center. With the general controlled chaos of daily routine, few of the other officers noticed the stern expression of the commanders face as he sat on his magnetic-lock chair and studied the relay absentmindedly.

Sarchenko was a guild operative and was damn proud of it. He graduated top of his class almost a decade ago and was pivotal during the criminal guild station hostage situation five years previously when he gave targeting points for the three SSV Walrus's that help shut the station down. Since then, he served on the SSV Ptolemy, a Starfish-Class frigate during the mobilization of the Expedition Armada. From his experiences, he has gained an almost sixth sense for when excitement were going to happen. That sense has been bothering him all day and he was getting angsty. With what he was guarding, that sense was very foreboding.

How he loathed that structure in front of him.

If it was up to him, every relay found would be blown to kingdom come and promptly forgotten. Mankind could just make its own form of FTL without having to depend on ancient gifts left behind by some 'forerunner' race. Every second that gateway is existing presents a security risk for the entire human race. If something violent came out through the relay and find humanity as it is now...

Well, while the relays are not still fully understood, the Alliance does know to to deactivate the Charon relay so at least the home system is safe. And if an invasion happens, the Alliance will not blame him for being absent in the line of service. There was a reason why he was in charge of all the other watchmen in the station after all.

Coming from a long line of exemplary guild soldiers, the Alliance immediately sensed the Commanders fortitude in stressful situations.

From first glance, you could tell right away that Ryan had guild blood flowing in him. He didn't have single blade of hair in his body after routine guild embryonic genetic modification. The lieutenants skin was incredibly pale due to living in the dark void for months at a time. His standard dark green Alliance uniform was immaculately wrinkle free and the Commander continually spoke to FARSIGHT-02 in an almost familial tone despite the AI's sarcastic personality.

With his quiet and resolute nature, the Lieutenant Commander absolutely reeked of Guild stereotypes.

From birth all adolescents living in guild stations are trained to never lose their temper or express violent behavior due the stations somewhat precarious location. With a strict work ethic and societal emphases on the restraining of emotions, most guild students barely flinched when the requisite augment kits are added to all children in zero gravity educational centers by the age of seven. Because of inherent limited uses and due to the wide range of possible replacements, the eyes are usually the first to go. Ryan himself, due to his family connections, was currently using a advanced mark-III scanning retinal prosthesis.

Prosthesis he was using to glare at the Relay before him.

The only thing that made him more uncomfortable then the relay was the installation him and his men were in to guard the alien gateway.

While sounding simple, taking apart a relay was an enormous amount of work. The reason Relays were so strong was to contain its own extreme potential energy as much as to protect it from outside sources. Thus, to avoid a catastrophic explosion, Relay disassembly took months of hard work, even with nanoswarm assistance. With such crews in high demand, known remaining relays needed to be watched for possible extrusion. Hence, the observation stations and the watchman.

With funds stretched tight, Alliance had come up with the 'ingenious' idea of attaining decommissioned pre-century weather needle-type stations and upgrading them with armor and weapon arrays. Just tow them within fifty kilometers of a awaiting relay and you have your observation station.

With superconductors also in high demand, the station didn't even have artificial gravity. While it did not bother the station-born Commander too much, it was a major source of annoyance by the non-guild members of his crew.

Oh well, what can you do. While conditions were less then adequate, he would make the best of it and his crew will do the same. They had a relay to guard and anything coming out of it with even a whiff of negative intent would be gently greeted by a salvo of eight kiloton anti-matter warheads.

Of course, the Alliance also demands that before any shooting happens, the station is required to first greet any alien vessel and ask its intentions. No doubt legislation made by the Star Sight Party. Ryan himself had mixed feelings on the notion. He had read the latest scientific journals on the idea of hypothetical alien cultures and they all agreed that any aliens that reached such a state of advancement has to have the same violent tendencies of mankind; the need to conquer and dominate. That ambition is the only fuel that makes a species evolve technologically.

While the League of Unity hoped that mankind will enjoy peaceful relations with extraterrestrials, the Lieutenant Commander was not about to hold his breathe. A wise man sees possible danger ahead and takes precautions. Part of the "walk softly and carry a big stick" policy the Alliance uses in case of a less then ideal first contact situation.

When you meet a stranger after opening a door, wave your hand and say hi. If the stranger shoots you with a pistol, shoot back with an RPG and then lock the door and never open it again. Try again with another door. In this galaxy, there are a lot of doors to choose from. Safe and simple.

Luckily, any signs of the relay being used has yet to be seen since operations first settled in the vicinity and if the luck held, it would never be seen. Deciding that he needed a break from his inner monologue, the commander cracked his neck bones and pressed some buttons to summon FARSIGHT. The avatar of the AI appeared seconds later and stood straight up with a salute. For all his habits, the commander enjoyed the AI's cheekiness. Growing up with synthetic teachers and residential AI nannys, the presence of FARSIGHT was both nostalgic and comforting for Ryan and all other guild-born crewman. While the citizens of the mandate and Earth appreciated synthetics, they haven't grown with them as long as the members of the free space habitats have. Everyone saw them as loyal companions but to the Guild, AI's were as good as family.

"So, FARSIGHT, anything I should know?" He presently greeted the AI. The overseer snorted in his usual manner. "Besides our beloved communications expert being his usual idiotic self, the station is at optimal conditions."

The commander barely restrained his smile. The arguments between FARSIGHT and Moreau were almost as comedic as the fights his older bother had with his father. The crew had their own fun as the rivalry was the chief source of gossip in the mess hall.

"I'm sure Mr. Moreau is trying his best, but an AI makes for tough competition. Try not to be so hard on him." The AI expression transformed to worry as he looked at Micheal's floating figure a few feet away. "Sir, all jokes aside, Mike seems more on edge then usual." The commander sighed as he turned the communications expert.

As augmented as the commander was, even he had to pause when he saw the officer almost completely covered in dataports. He basically replaced his entire skin by this point. That much wires sticking out of someone cannot possibly be healthy.

Surrounded my holographic tablets and graphs, the veteran watchman was the lead officer in observing all data received by the numerous sensory drones covering the relay and station proper. Completely immersed in a second world of raw sensory bytes and a swirling ocean consisting of billions of digits, the officer was currently connected intimately with the station itself – they were almost one body. Receiving updates from the thousands of different energy scans required massive neural alternations that only few ever attempted, hence Micheal's secure position. And of all them, Micheal was the one who worked with FARSIGHT-02 the most which was why they had such an...vitriolic relationship to say the least.

"Moreau, anything on scans?" The commander said after a small pause. If the officer noticed, he didn't comment. The holographs turned to face the commanders view as Moreau spoke with a slight artificial tone due to the replacement of his vocal cords for a cable bypass.

"Nothing yet sir. Electromagnetic pulses are stable and below activation range. Mass effect emissions are at standard range. No Saddlers spikes have been witnessed. Neutrino absorption is below activation range. Gravitonic sensors are still functional and have not sensed anything. Metronomic instrument readings are green. Dark energy bubble field is...expanding. Wait, that can't be right. Hold on a minute." He started typing on keyboards only he could see as more tablets emerged around him.

The commanders eyebrows raised as the central relay hologram was slowly enveloped by a purple bubble that appeared moments later. More data plots started flashing as they marked key points in the growing sphere. Other officers in the deck slowed down and turned to look at the hologram in rising concern. Soon, additional charts digitized showing that all energy wavelengths were rising rapidly. Audio-radio converters showed the quiet hum on the relay slowly turn to a dull roar.

The wheels of the relay were turning rapidly. Commander Ryan Sarchenko rose from his seat in rising horror.

Moreau finally told the Lieutenant Commander what he already figured out. "The drones are going nuts...Sir, Its starting! Something is activating it!" He practically yelled out. The deck crew froze in shock. Sarchenko stared blackly until training almost immediately took over. "All personnel, we are now in code red. Please assume battle stations." He stated firmly as he sat back down in his seat. He knew this day would come. He just knew it.

Red lights turned on.

It was as if a grenade was tossed into the room.

Crewmen started shouting commands without delay while pulse shields were raised at the orders of station technicians. Holographic data modules appeared almost everywhere as the air became charged with excitement. Sarchenko did not pause for a second. "Mr. Sanchez, halt all incoming transmissions from the area and initiate protocol 6-1. Ms. Caldwell, polarize the generators for possible attack. Ms. Valdez, power up the weapon arrays. "

The Commander looked at FARSIGHT who stared back in resolution, awaiting commands. The order received was clear. "FARSIGHT, get EDI."

Two seconds later, the blue appearance of the Fleet AI appeared next to the image of the relay itself on top of the growing chaos on the deck airspace.

"Mr. Moreau, what have you detected?" EDI was all business now which Micheal happily appreciated. "I'm transferring all current data to you know EDI. Initializing stream connection." A few more clicks and EDI's projection actually crackled for a second due to the immense influx of data. Seconds passed.

The relay's Saddlers spike was reaching maximum level.

"Lieutenant Commander Ryan Sarchenko, permission to assume control of this installation?" The commander did not hesitate. "Permission granted. FARISGHT, Mt. Moreau, stand down."

Every orange and green user screen on the station turned a light blue hue as a hush fell over all the present occupants.

"I am calibrating the sensor modules to full scan capacity. Mass relay will finalize action on approximately twenty seconds. First Contact message is prepped for launch. Please hold."

The Relay hologram was dismissed and replaced with a floating main visual screen created by the hundred of camera drones outside the station. The relay could plainly be seen pulsating with ambient dark energy as the gyroscopic wheels revolved faster and faster. The crew stared with baited breaths as Ryan tried his best to calm his erratic inhalation.

The wheels suddenly stopped and the loud beeping fell silent as a tiny black speck leaving a large trail flew from the now quiet relay. Commotion arose almost instantly.

"EDI, zoom in on it!" Barked Sarchenko as a second screen presented the unfocused object blistering by at a huge velocity. Where ever it was going, it wasn't toward the station.

The commanding officer needed more info. "What can you tell me about it? Is it human? Reynolds?"

The imaging officer in question read the incoming scans as they flashed literally over his eyes. "Sir, I'm getting a negative on all known ship databases and ID registries. No identifiable IFF signatures either." Huh, so its either rouge or Alien. Wanting to be absolutely sure, he checked the rough shape of the ship itself. A smooth, light reflecting figure presented itself. No Substrate Green anywhere and what looked like the exhaust point was on the sides instead of the standard back. The bizarre energy readings confirmed it.

"EDI, please send out the welcoming message to our guests." Sarchenko slowly rubbed his eyes. The paperwork he would have to write on this would be endless, regardless of the intention of the alien object. "Has the ship responded?" he said after almost a full minute of waiting.

"No messages received. Ship is ignoring hails." That was not good. While a good distance away, there was no way the ship didn't notice them. There was a disturbing possibility that the mass was only a scout to a large naval force. If that was the case, it might be a better idea to destroy it now before it returned back to the main fleet. He might as well make preparations before sending the second hail.

"Gunnery chief Jackson, please prep the missle arrays. EDI send a second hail."

The mood of the crew turned nervous as extra energy was rerouted to the array batteries. With the object moving as fast as it was, it would be only seconds till it was outside targeting range. If he wanted to engage the ship in combat, it would have to be now. "EDI, any response this time?"

EDI hesitated before answering. "None whatsoever." Before the order could be sent out, he was interrupted by a ensign.

"Commander, I analyzed the engine trails." What did that have to do with anything?

"Well, what about them?" He demanded after a second. The ensign cringed but continued. "Sir, they aren't trails, but raw Eezo. The ship is leaking it at a dangerous rate. Even without a better view of the ship, its obvious that its damaged. Sir, they're in trouble." Everyone froze. EDI continued scanning. The gunnery officer who was still trailing the ship cried out, "Sir, if you want it shot, it has to be now!"

The commander choose a third option.

Turing sharply to the contemplative communications expert, he summoned his attention. "Moreau, what are your thoughts?" The watchman turned to his commanding officer with a thoughtful visage on his face. Everyone looked at him.

"Commander, I don't claim to be an master of alien communications or the possible motives that alien objects might have. However, this body is broadcasting a repeating signal across a multitude of different frequencies. My current hypothesis is that its a distress signal." Sarchenko looked stunned at this revelation. "May I ask why you think that Moreau?"

The watchman actually looked embarrassed at the question. "Sir, you know how I enjoy spending time with my wife." small chuckles could be heard in the deck. The commander smirked but motioned for Micheal to continue. "Once me and the wife got stuck in a horribly written simulation of Rome and could not log out normally. To get out, my wife coded a aid transponder to call a AI moderator to release us. The message she made is very similar to what I'm hearing now. Simple, over common channels, and repeating over and over." He stopped and looked at the looming comet-like sight of the now distancing vessel. All eyes turned to the commanding officer for further instructions. He looked up at EDI.

The weapon master looked at him and he looked back.

As wrong as this felt, the commander felt a sense of peace for what he was about to say.

"EDI, please redirect all weapons back to the relay. After that please tell the main fleet that an alien vessel incoming on their position will need immediate medical and mechanical aid." The AI did not need to be told twice. "Relinquishing Installation controls. You did the right thing commander. Logging out." EDI promptly Disappeared.

The crew looked at each other in quiet bewilderment. Now what?

Evidently Sarchenko sensed this as he sat back down on his seat and started issuing commands. "All crew, just because one ship misses us does not mean every ship now gets an all clear! Last time I checked, we are still in battle stations! All eyes on the Relay! I want all weapons prepped and loaded on the double! Moreau, wheres my data sheets?" Micheal smiled and reconnected to the station.

The installation resumed its duties.

Lieutenant Commander Ryan Sarchenko and the rest of the stations crewmen would later receive the the coveted Blue Star of Thessia for their part in First contact.

Two years later, Micheal and Sharon Moreau gave birth to their son Jeffrey Moreau.

While the other observation installations were later recycled, Arcturus-Watchguard-02-314 Observation Station was preserved as a museum for Asari tourists.

][

**Author Notes:**

I'm so sorry but this just grew and grew and well, now you're getting a multi-parter. I decided to hold on to the next time segment until I can get my outline more in order. Anderson will probably appear next chapter.

Before you guys scream at me about the tech, let me ask you something. Would paragon humanity build a mountain of advanced gizmos and then stand on it while laughing at all the races around it _or_ would it distribute it in a controlled manner with its neighbors to better improve relations? You might be surprised at how effective gifts are at helping your reputation, especially when made by those terrible synths that everyone is afraid of.

Lets just say Saren will not be the only one with augments in my ME1.

The Alliances position in the galaxy will be on a thin thread at first. And sure, it could always just make an army and crush its opponents, but it might destroy itself even if it wins. Sometimes fighting isn't always the better option; particularly in the long run.

My humanity, while very capable, will look at other options besides warfare to solve its foreign problems. I'm not saying war will never happen, but they will try to avoid that fate as much as possible. Then again, you cannot be paragon and not make a few enemies. (Spoiler: For my version of ME lore, mankind will be involved in an official war before my version of ME1. Before you despair, let me assure you that it will not end the way you think it might. So far, I have never seen anyone else write what I'm thinking of doing. Feel free to guess in the comments section ;D).

My intention for the Alliance to have good relations with the council races, or at least better then canon, still stands.

No, only canon races in the ME universe will be appearing in this fic for those worried about that little halo reference I added regarding the forerunners. While I do take inspiration from several different sources, this fic will not become an official crossover.

I almost died when the comments jumped from seventy to a hundred comments overnight. Whoever sponsored me to the First contact AU Community, thank you so much! I literally danced a little when I saw my fic on the first page! While I love what all that you guys have to say, I have to give special props to **Aaronexus**, **Me Myself and I**, **Kudara**, and **X- The Randomist -X** for their extremely interesting answers to my question regarding my Geth/Quarian question last chapter. I'm already rethinking my original stance on the issue and I just want you guys to know that if I could lick your heads to absorb some for your beautiful essence I would. Wow that's weird.

See you guys next chapter and as usual, please write your opinion on the question below. I assure you that I will read them.

**Question Number four:** This one will be a doozy and I'm not sure I should ask it, but what the hell, you guys deserve it. For those of you wondering, for paragonverse ME1, all the original party members will be back including Tali, Wrex, and Liara. In addition, Shepard will also have the earlier addition of Legion (Geth ambassador to the Alliance), and EDI (With her body.)

Now its your turn. Who do you think would make a interesting additional member to the crew? Whether a party member from ME2 of ME3 or someone never as a crew member in any of the games, this is your chance to make your voice known. In addition, please tell me why you think they should join the crew and how it will fit in with this paragon universe.

For example, Javik is straight out because he would rather kill himself then work for such insane savages (You're entire culture actually enjoys the machines presence? Allow me to throw myself out the airlock.) while I'm seriously considering having Liara's father be the official bartender for the Normandy SR-1.

See you guys later! :D


	6. Chapter 5 - News and Sneak Peaks

**Announcement!**

][

Alright guys, this really sucks, but I will not be able to get back to this fic for a while. Real life has sucker punched me in the nads and my timetable has gotten even crazier then usual.

No, I have no plans on giving up this story, but the updates will be getting more erratic for some time. It really sucks and I feel really bad on leaving you guys hanging so I decided to reveal some of my future plans and to give you awesome readers some super secret limited info on the world of Paragonverse Mass Effect for your mind to chew on in the meantime.

Here are my current plans:

First of all, I want to finish first contact. Later I plan on making a series of codex chapters on assorted tech and Alliance relations so that when we finally enter the events of ME1 you guys will not be completely lost. With ME1 proper I plan on sticking to traditional novel format with less info-dumps.

][

**Due to growing personal dissatisfaction and legitimate criticisms, as of 12/20/12 I have started a large scale rewrite of this story with chapter One being the first reworked. I am letting you know this so that reading older comments or the un-worked chapters do not confuse you. So please do me a big favor and please re-read the first chapter if you're a veteran. I am working on a new version of chapter two which should be better made and come some relatively soon.)**

][

Alright, to the juicy bits! :D

Do not worry, this info dump will be kept later in the story for posterity reasons.

Since updating will take awhile, I decided to bestow you guys a sneak peak on what the Alliance's position in this universe is by the time we start ME1 itself. There will be some blanks in the plot; feel free to fill them in yourselves or guess in the comments. After all, I have to keep some secrets... :]

][

**Here is a basic summary on paragon Alliance in this universe by the events of ME1:**

**(Note: everything below is subject to change. If you think something I wrote below is really stupid, please let me know. I have a problem with not thinking ahead sometimes which is why I'm always open to your suggestions.)**

The Alliance is a freedom minded democracy which values personal and civil liberties above all else. Because of this liberal stance, it also has the rare distinction of allowing non-humans to attain official citizenship and to participate in all areas of civil government.

In this galaxy, Humanity is seen as an extremely open-minded race which embraces differences with open arms. As a testament to that mindset, the Alliance homeworld of Earth has easily the biggest minority alien population compared to all other homeworlds amongst the Citadel species. While Thessia, the second runner, has a recorded eighteen million non-Asari residing on the Eezo rich world, Earth is the home to almost seventy five million aliens (Batarians, Asari, and Vorcha making the biggest portions), who live in harmony with mankind on the cosmopolitan green sphere; a massive planetwide melting pot of different ideas and cultures. From Asari ran wine-bars and fruit orchids to Batarian style barbecue restaurants and remote controlled robotic gladiator stadiums to Drell cultural shadow puppet shows and Geth owned simulation server clubs, Earth has it all. The immense popularity of the "Big Green Glow-ball" led to the well known slogan used by the Alliance Tourism Board: "what happens on Earth stays on Earth."

With some of the least restraining immigration policies in galactic space, millions of aliens flow through Alliance owned mass relays every solar year seeking hope and a better future.

Mars boasts the biggest Turian population in Alliance space by a wide margin with ten million Turian workers and soldiers having applied for the iconic green Alliance civ-cards. The Vol protectorate runs two dozen sovereign stations in the Sol system alone and remains the staunchest allies to the Floating Guilds Executive Board to this day. The Hanar presently manage a massive cathedral to the Enkindlers near the Martian Prothean ruins since the Alliance has a reputation of accepting religious groups banned or frowned upon in Citadel space.

The Turian population on Mars, made mostly of Separatist activists, remains a hot political issue in the otherwise decent relations between the Hierarchy and the Alliance.

Synthetics by the billions are also freely welcomed in Alliance space and are a proud source of national identity that sets the Alliance apart from its fellow space nations. The Alliance is the only large independent power in space to have friendly relations and active trade with the Geth Collective. Humanity is also the sole race trying to broker peaceful coexistence between the Geth and the Migrant fleet. Very little progress has been made so far in the hearings.

The Alliance is the biggest exporter of medical and colonization infrastructure products in the galaxy. With several decades of experience in genetic and cybernetic engineering, humanity has to this point cured several "incurable" conditions and infections including thirty types of Turian degenerative cancer, the malignant form of Salarian Orange Leprosy, and developed the successful procedure of Drell lung transplantation needed to cure Kepral's Syndrome. The Hanar ambassador to the Alliance told the chief doctor of the first successful surgery is soul name soon after and they are best friends to this day.

All levels of Alliance government has aliens in its seats with one quarter of the Alliance senate being non-humans. While the current Alliance president is human, the vice president is an Earthborn Salarian and is reportedly very popular due to his pro-human stance on numerous issues.

In terms of Military, the Enlistment board is completely species blind and only cares about citizenship. While the majority of the armed forces is still human or synthetic, a significant portion of the Alliance Navy is ran and protected by naturalized Turian, Batarian, and Asari Marines and sailors who are treated just like everybody else from boot camp to promotion into high command. A long as your wear the green and black, your race and species officially does not matter.

With human biotics still being extremely rare, Asari Alliance citizens are given large benefits for joining the Alliance biotic Corps.

While currently still only an associate Citadel race, every being with a brain in the galaxy knows that the Council would give humanity a Council seat in a heartbeat if only they could finally stop disagreeing on certain core issues including AI treatment and the questionable purpose and freedom of Spectres.

Both N7 Marines David Anderson and Kai Leng have been offered the privilege of joining the ranks of the elite Spectre agency for their exemplary heroic actions in the service of non-humans and both politely declined due to existing Alliance protocol on the issue.

In Citadel history, only two other individuals ever refused to accept Spectre membership, both Asari matriarchs.

While humanity and the Council races do not agree on several issues, the Alliance maintains a policy on not antagonizing them.

The Alliance tries its best not to "show up" the Citadel races. The Turian Hierarchy and the Salarian Union in particular have sensitive egos and Humanity sees no point in surpassing them in certain areas and then rubbing it in thus creating unneeded hostility. Whenever possible, the Alliance tries to rope in members of a Council race to share in any noticeable achievements even if their contribution is minimal.

For instance, while uplifting the Vorcha to a more respectable stance was mostly due to Alliance machinations, a small group of Republic Asari scientists were involved in relatively unimportant parts of the project. Knowing this, the Alliance immediately decided to spin the news so that a disappropriate amount of credit was given to Asari participation. To the average Citadel viewer, the eventual headlines of "Another successful uplifting by our wise benefactors from Thessia" made human presence in the event seem almost inconsequential. The matriarch Council (and the Vorcha) knew better but appreciated the gesture and significant popularity increase that came with it.

Ever since League of Unity ships established outreach programs in Tuchanka, inter-clan warfare have diminished to almost manageable levels with the majority of female Krogans supporting these "Soft-skin bringers of common sense." While the Krogan are still a very violent people, the death toll on the barren planet has shrunken slightly and the League considers this a victory. The Alliance has no official statement regarding its stance on the Genophage.

Humans might be amicable and cooperative but they can be unbelievably conniving at the same time.

The Alliance is the "secret empire" and all the alien leaders are conscious of this. To those who do not know better, the Alliance appears to be a relatively small, perhaps overly friendly nation that holds peaceful relations with a wide range of species. That is just the first layer. Much more powerful then at first glance, the Alliance is a heavily concentrated territory with a massive loyal alien population besides humans and it commands a high tech naval force far stronger than at first glance.

That's a lesson the Batarian Hegemony learned the hard way.

But that story is for another time.

][

Here is a preview list that I will expand upon in a series of Alliance Relations codex entries.

**Excellent relations:** Batarian Free Federation*1*2 (BFF), Vorcha Clan Assembly (VCA), Vol Protectorate*2, Geth Collective, Asari Replublics*2.

**Warm relations:** Hanar Illuminated Primacy*2, Salarian Union, Elcor Courts, Turian Hierarchy*1.

**Tentative relations**: Quarian Migrant Fleet, Krogan Tribes, The Terminus systems.

**Currently at Ceasefire:** Batarian Hegemony

Systems Alliance are founders and members of the Attican Coalition*1 and the Galactic Trade Order.*2

][

While there is no question per say, I would very much enjoy reading any contributions you guys would like to give me on how the Alliance got to its current status or where it should go from here. Any small detail you would want to see mentioned will be recorded and possibly used in the future. I already have made major alternations to the plot skeleton that I had since the beginning of this project due to your thoughts, so please keep them coming. I purposely left several things blank so that you guys might add in your own input.

As possible examples you could maybe answer the following: What is going on with the Krogans and the paragon Alliance? What is the Attican Coalition? What does Aria, queen of Omega, think of all these shenanigans? What childhood should Shepard have in the bizarro universe? You decide!


	7. Human Relations: Asari

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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Human Relations: Asari

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"Do you believe in destiny Shepard? I myself have my doubts, but I cannot deny how fateful our meeting was when you rescued me on Therum. And other Asari feel the same way when we meet your species. A race that looks and acts so much like us. A people that loves other races with the same passion like we do. You first act in the galaxy at large was to selflessly rescue my kind. When we met your people, it was like finding a long lost best friend. And yet humanity is so different from us with your augmentations and love of AI's. I guess you could say that you're the yang to my yin. That is how the phrase works, yes?"

**-Liara T'Soni, on board the SSV Normandy**

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**Asari Replublics:** In short: The thing of romance novels. But like all good relationships, sometimes the traits that you like most in someone are also the things that annoys you the most about that same person. The Asari sees us as the perfect little students for their mothering but are annoyed by humanities perceived rash decisions. Humanity sees the Asari as well meaning but high-and-mighty at times. At the moment, the Alliance and the Replublics are in a strange conflict of who can 'out-polite' the other in all diplomatic meetings. There are several rumors that ambassador Udina and councilor Tevos might be dating but no conclusive proof has been found at the moment.

][

Asari-human relations can be summed up in a single phrase: "Love at first sight."

As far as first impressions go, humanity could scarcely have done better when it rescued a unarmored passenger ship containing an all Asari crew as First Contact. Considering that the vessel held a Asari matron diplomat coming back from a business trip from Omega, Alliance navy personnel soon were able to communicate freely with captain Vela Sielith and her crew of twenty six. News of the rescue spread like wildfire across Council space in record time and only got more heated when Turian naval ships returned the crew safely to the Citadel with a group of Alliance ambassadors accompanying the party.

It helped that the diplomat rescued was also the niece of the esteemed Asari councilor Tevos.

Presently, humanity enjoys an extremely close and friendly relationship with the Asari Replublics in almost all aspects. Economically, Asari and human corporations have a long history of collaboration in several scientific and real estate dealings with the synergy assisted nicely by the ease of converting the Alliance credit to the Thessian dollar alongside the galactic credit. The Floating Guilds maintain several stations in Asari space to facilitate human/Asari transactions while several Asari companies own outreaches on Alliance space and even within the Sol system itself. While controversies like the Alliance owned commerce planet Hephaestus Prime, built in direct competition with Illeum, keep the record from being spotless, the Systems Alliance and the Replublics still maintain the longest unrestricted economic borders in space.

Culturally, Humanity has gobbled up aspects of Asari culture with ravenous hunger as evident by the slew of Asari vid channels, toys, biotic athletics, and 'blue' movies that can be easily purchased in Alliance space. Out of the nineteen official Asari national holidays, the Alliance has inducted five into their own calender. Its considered a fact that its impossible to find a group of Asari without a few humans in their midst and vice versa. Asari/human dating and sexual relations is almost epidemic on all parts of human space and 'blue' porn, including the human owned Fornax magazine, is extremely widespread all over Alliance space.

The Replublics themselves, strongly encouraged and bemused by our thirst for their items, started copying elements of human culture on Thessia, a move which only increased as mankind started forming settlements on the Asari homeworld as part of cultural exchange programs between the Replublics and the Alliance. Asari now enjoy several brand new pastimes like horror movies, human style slumber parties, and new cuisines such as pizza, burgers, and Chinese takeout. It was with much rejoicing that McDonald's opened their first branch on Thessia with a separate Eezo heavy menu for young Asari on the go.

Thessia enjoyed its first official Christmas on 2174 ADE.

**Note:** When I finally get around to laying out the basic background histories for Commander Shepard, one possible childhood for him/her is the above program. Kid Shepard and his parents, in a group with thousands of other carefully selected human colonists, form Port Olympus near Armali, a wealthy Asari city-state and home of the Armali bio-amp guild. There, young Shepard goes to school with several other young humans (one of them being Kaidan) amongst thousands of Asari. If the 'player' chooses this route, the story with reflect that by having Shepard personally knowing Matriarch Benezia and some of her commandos, being childhood friends with Kaidan Alenko (they shave their heads and enlist at the same time), and Shepard gains the ability to speak fluent Thessian and Armalish with other Asari (like Liara), without the need for a translator implant.

No matter how much she/he is asked, Shepard will vehemently deny ever being part of a Thessian school endorsed Asari orgy (even if her Asari classmates begged her to join.)

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Human/Asari Relations - Conflicts

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For all the characteristics about humanity that the Asari like, there are some things that the Asari continuously bring up that gets at mankind's collective nerves.

The Asari, while being a very technologically capable race, are culturally conservative on numerous issues. With that in mind, they are very uncomfortable with how fast they perceive mankind is advancing. To them, we are just as bad as the Salarians only at least for the natives from Sur'kesh their small lifespans cushion their influence somewhat. Not the case with humanity with our average lifespan of two hundred years after decades of genetic and medical-nanotech advancements. In a disturbingly short time we fixed our broken homeworld, built bases on every floating body in our system, established colonies on several nearby star systems, and already disassembled four relays until our fateful meeting on relay 314. Our advances on computers, nanotechnology, robotics, and artificial floating structures after only one century of mainstream space flight makes the Asari nervous which is one of the reasons they are so adamant on meddling in human affairs.

One point of utter fascination with the Asari (and several other races) is mankind's peaceful coexistence with synthetics. Initially fearful of another Morning War, the influx of synth made merchandise pouring into Citadel space has made even the Matriarch Council rethink several century long concepts thought impervious to time. Mankind has done its part to help ease in new ideas to the citizens of Thessia and the rest of the galaxy. Alliance AI's are purposely kept within ships when docked in the Citadel and rarely seen on the Citadel proper. In addition, Humanity has allowed the Salarian/Asari corporation Synthetic Insights to overseer all organic/synthetic relations outside Alliance space to decrease the chances of possible incidents.

The issues of sexual attraction has gained its own share of controversy with both species. Humanities prevalence in Asari space, their appearance, and their cultural qualities makes them very enticing targets for young Asari seeking bond mates. This however unintentionally brought up long suppressed societal debates over the cultural stigma of the Asari-Asari pair taboo as more Asari enter into relationships with Humans. Many Asari find themselves being accused of being "pocket purebloods" using humans as a substitute to satisfy their perverse hunger for their fellow Asari. Humans themselves has their own fair share of controversy over the issue with small but vocal groups such as the political "Daughters of Terra" and the anarchists terrorist group "Blue Venerian Slayers" angrily protesting any human-Asari sexual relationships portrayed or shown in Alliance media.

][

**Author Notes:**

...And I have come back from the dead. Before you guys celebrate, I want to let you guys know that things are still hectic where I am at and that updates will still be very erratic. I only just came back from a major case of writers block but the brain juices are finally starting to flow again so I decided to write this up before my cranium went dry. Again.

As another note, for those of you who had not read my message, please reread the first chapter! I did some major rewriting and the new writeup is barely recognizable to the previous version.

And as a final note, I want your guys opinion on something. I have been writing several pages filled with notes on a multitude of possible ideas for another Mass Effect fanfic universe outside of Paragon Reinterpretations. But I am having trouble deciding on what to focus on. So instead, I will write down the scenarios and summaries of each idea and you tell me which one strikes your fancy the most.

Also, please be aware of MB18932's own version of Paragon Reinterpretations. So far, it looks pretty good and might be worth a go see by my estimates. Hey, the more the merrier right?

][

**Option #1: Cthulhu Mythos/Mass Effect Crossover - Humanity/Leviathan War outside the general knowledge of Galaxy**

**Title: **Mass Effect: Their Eldritch Callings

**Summary: **The Galaxy is dark and full of mysteries. But they all paled to the unknown lurking within the Silent Sea inside the Attican Traverse. A place where every Relay is inexplicably silent. A place where ships disappear. And finally, a place where a secret alliance works to save the galaxy from the mistake of an elder race.

**Basic Idea:** H.P. Lovecraft somehow got a hold of an ancient leviathan orb and received messages from it. Later, after Alliance scientists find Elder Things frozen in lifepods on Pluto, they realize that the creatures written by Lovecraft were actual races that were all either fighting against or enslaved by the Leviathans. In the following decades, humanity allies themselves with dozens of bizarre, outwordly alien races to combat the power of the leviathans and forges the Systems Alliance in their collective war. Features Shepard senior forging peace between the Elder things and their Shoggoths servants, Andersen leading an army of the Greater Race of Yith against the Collectors, and humanity Splicing themselves with captured Leviathan DNA to create super Psionic warriors. Of course, everything changes when this Systems Alliance, made up of around fifteen or more "eldritch" (there actually really nice when you get to know them) races besides humanity, finally make contact with the canon aliens...ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

][

**Option #2: Ancient Rome Humanity/Prothean First Contact**

**Title: **Mass Effect: The Terran Empyrean

**Summary:** And so it was, during the golden period of the Roman Empire under the rule of Emperor Optimus Trajan, that the gods themselves left the aether to visit Rome in their vast floating fleet. Calling themselves Protheans, this last remnant of a once powerful race reformed humanity to usher in a new age in the galaxy – An imperial age.

**Basic Idea: **During the final periods of the Reaper/Prothean war, the main royal fleet, led by the Prothean dreadnaught Penumbra Apex and carrying the standing empress, fled to a remote province that would later be named the Attican Traverse. There, they entered the Sol system and blew up the Charon relay. They land the fleet on Mars and after a several thousand year hibernation, wake up to see that the natives on Earth have formed a super power around one of their seas. Deciding that the Reaper threat is gone for the moment, they decide to reform their empire with humanity as their first Vassals. Features Human marines (now called neo-legionnaires) offering battle prayers to Mars and Kratos, Eden Prime now being known as Provenca Roma, humanity as an imperialistic and militant race for their upper class Prothean patrician masters, and Shepard being a battle apprentice to the arch-knight of vengeance on board the SSV Carthage, Captain Talas Javik.

My main goal was to turn humanity into a race that would have very good relations with the Batarian Hegemony because we are their biggest moneymaker since we buy most of their slaves. Hey, it took millions of slaves to build Rome, so imagine an interstellar empire! This idea was birthed after seeing the works of StellarStateLogic on Deviantart which I highly recommend you check out.

**Note:** I probably will not write this one out since its a little too close to Warhammer 40,000 for my taste. Its up for grabs it you're interested however so consider it a freebie :D

][

**Option #3: Humanity/Several Original Alien races AU**

**Title: **Mass Effect: The Clustered Expanse

**Summary:** From flashing pulsars and unending nebulae, space really is vast and infinite. With four hundred billion stars in the Milky Way are we truly alone among the great unknown? Mankind answered that question in canon by 2148 ADE but what if we found out the answer earlier? Like back in 1969 when Neil Armstrong found a massive Prothean Facility on the moon?

**Basic Idea:** This one is my favorite concept so far. Basically, mankind finds out that the Sol system is apparently a haven of some sorts for numerous aliens over the past millenniums. Prothean facility on Luna. A frozen ship containing Rachni eggs is discovered in the Arctic. Alien bases are discovered on Titan, Mars, and Pluto. A Geth ship greets us near Arcturus. We declare war on the Collectors. The Raloi becomes our bros. The good thing about this setting is that I would finally get a chance to make up my own alien races and place them within the Mass Effect universe as they make friends with humanity. Besides that, mankind meets basically every leftover alien not commonly seen in Mass Effect fanfiction like the Virtual Alien and the Raloi way before we meet the biggies like the Turians or Asari. By the time mankind makes contact with the Citadel races on the proper canon time of 2148, the Systems Alliance is already made up of humans, Rachni, Raloi, and at least eight brand new races that I do not want to spoil just yet.

][

**Note:** Since this is completely for fun and enjoyment, please feel free to take any of the ideas that I laid out above and use it for your own fanfic. I might not write it after all but me (and others) would love to see what you can do with the concepts :D


	8. Human Relations: Geth

**Disclaimer: **Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Paragon Reinterpretations

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Human Relations: Geth

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"This platform greets you Shepard-Commander. We already have gained much from your government and 779 of our programs are statistically showing a 87% chance of mutual benefits between you and this platform on board this stealth vessel. With your permission, we will enjoy continued conversations with you on the ship's data stream neural network. You input will be noted in our consensus. "

**- Legion, Geth ambassador to the Alliance,**** on board the SSV Normandy**

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**Geth Collective:** 'Secretly' admires humanity and in their own timid way emulate us in certain manners. Allow certain Alliance synthetics to join in the consensus but the Geth as a whole prefer their privacy, even though they interact infrequently with humans via virtual reality constructs. Few Geth are present on Earth. EDI is always invited to the consensus because they value her opinion.

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Humans are weird.

As is usually the case with most first contacts, a time of species-wide awe and curiosity immediately follows the initial meeting between two space faring nations. When the Asari first met the Salarians near the Citadel they obsessed over Salarian culture and scientific prowess. When the Asari and the Salarians saw the Turian fleets for the first time, they wondered out loud over the circumstances that led to such heavy militarization and so on and so forth. Humanity was no different.

What sets us apart is that we, at least to the galaxies point of view, have yet to leave that initial phase in our political life in space. We look like Asari – weird but perfectly acceptable. Most humans were subtle cyborgs – strange but hey, it could be worse.

Then the galaxy found out that one fourth of our national census consisted of free AI's and then they took cautious notice. The Turians panicked and rapidly mobilized. The Salarian stared at the data in amazement. The Asari started calling in favors to help lessen the effects of another Morning War.

A war that never happened. Humanity and Alliance AI's honestly had no idea what the problem was until later explanations were given by their flabbergasted neighbors. As years went by with absolutely nothing horrible happening in the human/alien borders the Citadel races finally started calming down and lowered their security. When the Synthetic Insights Accord was signed and human-made AI's heavily restricted on Citadel space, some semblance of peace was finally attained on the whole issue.

Then the Council found out that one of our previous ambassadors was actually an android that looked indistinguishable from a organic human. After the initial wave of extreme paranoia that struck the Citadel public, androids that appeared human were banned in Citadel space and required to wear obvious metallic skins to make their constitution obvious to the Citadel organic public. 'Skin-jobs' are still legal in Alliance space and has led to hundreds of conspiracy theories that several important politicians and diplomats are all actually android infiltrators.

After that debacle the Council sincerely wished that humanity would keep any synth related problems to themselves from now on. They never had this much 'machine scandals' even with the Quarians when they were still a Citadel affiliate race.

Then STG operatives recorded Geth ships entering and leaving Alliance space. The councilors banged their heads against their podiums and groaned. Will this madness ever end? Why did humans have to be friends with everyone? Even the murderous Geth?

And how did they succeed in such an insane proposition?

Humanity became the first race to enter the Perseus Veil and return unharmed and unscathed and that alone shocked the Council races. Again. After three hundred years of isolation, the Geth finally reached out and they choose mankind as their link to the galaxy at large. In retrospect, it was obvious that the Geth would not stand ideally by when mankind entered the galactic scene.

For three hundred years the Geth formed large stations and built neural nexus networks all over former Quarian space – all because they were lonely and did not know how to cure it. Recognizing their mental inadequacies and subsequent scarring made by the forced disappearance of their creators but unable to find anyone willing to help them, the Geth languished in a figurative catigative purgatory for three centuries while they observed the rest of the galaxy to find purpose to their seemingly meaningless existence. Then their hacked proxy terminals to the extranet discovered humanity and that flipped their world upside down. It took weeks for the consensus to finally agree on sending a care package to a remote Alliance colony and then await humanities reaction.

The Geth as a whole were not hopeful or optimistic. Their record in relating with organic races, creator or otherwise, was absolutely abyssal and humanity would probably be no different. Then a super powerful infomorph AI known as EDI appeared to the Consensus as an angel of light and gave them hope in a bright new future – a future together with organics.

EDI, being too practical for such nonsense, in her own words only offered them a crash course on the "Idiots guide to organic/synthetic interactions" that they obviously badly needed.

The League of Unity eagerly sent diplomatic ships to the Perseus Veil to open diplomatic relations with the consensus after months of hard study sessions between the Geth and a whole team of professional Alliance AI counselors and psychologists.

The first Geth embassy in existence opened in Arcturus station in 2172 ADE.

It was never EDI's intention to induce five percent of the Geth consensus to worship her as a living goddess.

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Human/Geth Relations - Interactions

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After centuries of the Geth being the unofficial boogeyman of the galaxy, seeing the formerly genocidal unfeeling terminators playing happily with human children and opening their own bars in Earth to 'better understand organics' has severely altered long held notions of the synthetic race all across the galaxy.

The Turians felt vaguely embarrassed but maintained fleets around relays near Alliance space to keep up appearances. The Salarian science community wanted to somehow collectively kiss humanity for the immense scientific potential their actions brought to the galaxy by somehow 'taming' the Geth. The Matriarch council in Thessia were forced to hire Alliance AI consultants for assistance since the Asari's skill at synthetic diplomacy were rusty to say the least.

The Quarian migrant fleet splintered into two smaller fleets. It was not a happy affair.

In 2183, the Geth maintains a small presence on Earth itself while keeping larger populations of their gestalt programs on several Geth owned stations in remote areas of space near and in Alliance territory. Significant Geth communities are often found alongside Alliance AI owned cites and machine hives scattered infrequently in Alliance space. The Geth like their privacy and while they admire humans, they are more comfortable talking and living with their fellow AI's and humanity for the most part understands.

Contrary to popular belief, humanity did not suddenly 'cure' the Geth. Mankind only gave them the chance to prove themselves to the galaxy as viable members but most of the work involved is the Geth's own problem to deal with. After all, they killed billions of Quarians as their first major act since their 'birth' and humanity did not just magically forget that fact. But at the same time, the Geth were immature when the war happened and mankind also gets that.

Humanity and their AI's are less the Geth's best buddies and more the Geth's therapists and teachers with mankind's AI's doing most of the work. But on a optimistic note, the Geth are proving to be excellent students and have made huge progress with their interaction with organics. While taking in mostly human qualities since we are their most usual test subjects, some Geth subroutines are more courageous and communicate on willing Asari channels and other outlets.

The extranet's largest MMO, Galaxy of Fantasy, hit prime time news when it was revealed that the game's most successful PvP guild "Lords of the Gears" was actually an entirely synthetic ran group of gaming Geth and Alliance AI RPG enthusiasts.

Legion was the guild captain and founder.

Later as a way to raise crew moral in your search for Saren you can orchestrate a LAN party on the Normandy with Legion as the main manager of the activity. EDI provides chips and soda.

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Geth as they apply in Paragon Reinterpretations

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Heretic Geth do not exist in Paragon Reinterpretations. The Geth as a whole reject Sovereign's offer due to their renewed hope in organic/synthetic peace with mankind's continual assistance and they actively fight the reapers from the get-go. At numerous times Shepard will gain valuable intel from Geth intelligence platforms scattered all over Attican, Citadel, and Terminus space. A Geth cruiser provides fire support and Geth prime reinforcements will show up during your first mission on Eden prime to help you drive out Saren's Collector forces. As an additional RTS-like gameplay component, certain missions will allow for Shepard to control small Geth unit pockets and direct them besides your usual squadmates. Those annoying jumping Geth will block the enemies radar and not your own. Your clapping is much appreciated.

Legion will be your constant ally, friend, and squadmate in all three games like Garrus and Tali were in canon. Also like in canon, he will often initiate philosophical discourse with you on the Normandy and report back to the main consensus your opinions on certain topics. Since the Geth uses Legion mainly as a ear hole for understanding humanity and since you're the human Legion likes the most, what you say to him will have major ramifications in paragon ME1, ME2, and ME3 for Geth/human/alien relations.

You and EDI inadvertently become the Geth's surrogate parents. Think about how much power that entails.

Unlike in canon, a romance is possible with him for both male and female Shepard (I'm heavily leaning towards female) if you play your cards right in the first game (or in my novelization of it anyways. ) You can even purchase a human looking prosthetic body for him to inhabit in your eventual romantic outing with him on the Citadel. EDI will provide witty banter if you take this route as she feigns jealousy.

Yes, there is an option to go on a double date with Legion, EDI, and Joker you weirdos you. I kid, I kid...

][

**Author Notes:**

You guys would not believe how mad I got when reading Renegade Reinterpretations and seeing what was written for the Geth relations chapter. I promised myself not to do something that cruel to you guys and I have now kept that promise.

I make no promises on when I will finally get back to finishing up the First Contact portions of this fic. These relation mini-chaps are easier on my noggin and will probably be finished before I get back to Anderson and his posse. With work the way it is, making full chapters is harder then I thought and takes longer to write out.

On a happier note the story finally got three hundred plus reviews and I jumped in shock when I saw the numbers! You guys are awesome! On the subject of my next fic, I am happy to let you know that Mass Effect: The Clustered Expanse is now in the works! For those of you who choose option one, I decided to bring some elements I was reserving for Their Eldritch Callings and brought them over to option three to satisfy your cosmic horror urgings. Elder Things will be making an appearance since for some unfathomable reason they were always my favorite Lovecraft race even though they're basically giant winged barnacles with starfishes replacing their head and feet.

And now its your turn to leave your opinions! :D

**Question Number five: Paragon moral choices ****- Xenomutualism Vs. Convergence.**

One thing that bothered me when first writing this story was how the brand new moral system would work out. Canon, its Paragon Vs. Renegade. That's simple enough. You're either a jerk or a saint. In Renegade Reinterpretations, it Xenonationalist Vs. Assimilation. So you hate aliens and think they should live in their own turf away from you or you think all aliens should bow down to humanity with us as leaders ruling the galaxy. What about Paragon Reinterpretations?

I am currently going with Xenomutualism Vs. Convergence as the two separate mindsets in the same overarching paragon range. Xenomutualism is the philosophy that progress and ascension is best done when different governments (especially alien) compete with one another for the benefit of all. This path supports a united council that manages a smoothly interacting but distinct array of alien species both organic and synthetic where all species are seen as valued members. On the other hand, the Convergence path says that true progress is only made when all distinctions between groups are shattered. Their dream goal is to eradicate all walls between both governments and the line between flesh and circuitry. For a advocate of Convergence, long term goals include a Council that would maintain a interstellar one government system which transcends both reality and virtual constructs and considers all sapient life, both organic and synthetic, as only one race - a living people.

**In summary:**

**Xenomutualism:** Aliens are awesome!

**Convergence:** What aliens? If its alive then its family!

**Note:** After an excellent post in the comments section, I decided to add on here that Xenomutualism and Convergence will have synonym titles in the story. Xenomutualism will also be referred as Coalationism (means the same thing 'ingame' but flows from the mouth better) and Convergence will also be known as Universalism and Galacticism. Honestly I just called it Convergence in reference to the synthesis ending of ME3 but the other two alternate names were too good in my book to pass up.

What do you guys think?


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